In a somewhat controversial move Wednesday, the Tennessee legislature enacted H.R. 129 making driving above the speed limit a capital offense. The bill also decriminalizes a large range of crimes such as drunk driving, distracted driving, death by vehicle, and manslaughter as well as abolishing all hours of service rules for drivers of commercial vehicles. Tennessee also plans to remove the center dividers on all of its highways as it says they are "impacting commerce."
Senator Doug Overby, in a statement released to WATE news said, "Lane markings are much less important than speed limits. If people would just slow down, they could avoid that drunk driver in their lane and they wouldn't die. It's all about commerce. Liquor makers need their cash, too and drunk driving laws are too restrictive on heavy consumption of those manufacturers' products." While drunk driving remains a heavy crime in NC, Senator Overby thinks they will come around to Tennessee's way of thinking, "That's what the real problem is: speed. If everyone just slowed down and paid close attention, that texting teen that has crossed the center line wouldn't be so deadly. We could all get hammered and drive into opposing traffic!"
Exceeding the speed limit will come with heavy penalties including capital punishment carried out by tractor-trailers in the wrong lane. "If you don't speed, you won't have to worry about getting run over by a tractor-trailer in your lane. Commerce is far more important than general public safety. I mean, we can all agree on that, right?" Senator Overby said.
Truck drivers have historically been bound to rules about the hours they are allowed to drive without breaks. H.R. 129 will also abolish those rules as they, in the senate's opinion, are too restrictive of commerce. Overby said, "Traditionally, truckers are sleep deprived anyway so why try to keep them rested? With this new bill, speeders will be responsible for avoiding the careening big rig coming at them and if you are going slow enough, that shouldn't be a problem."
"We're in a tough economy, some people need to be maimed or killed for commerce to pick up."
2 comments:
Cause this is less dangerous than speeding?? http://tailofthedragon.com/dragon_trucks.html Don't care what speed you drive/ride, when a solid wall (aka. truck) is in your way, you're crash, avoiding it, hitting it.. etc. "no reasonable alternative route for commercial traffic." - Congressman Duncan .. I guess he considers this reasonable!! http://tailofthedragon.com/pics2003/TRUCKS/trk_vs_miata.jpg
Just remember that as a motorcyclist in Tennessee your "reasonable alternative route" around a semi-truck in your lane is the ditch or off the side of a mountain so far as your government is concerned.
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