Sunset Bills Pass – Senate To Move Forward

After over 3 weeks of dealing with sunset bills, the Senate completed work today and is ready to take up unfinished business. There is much speculation that in the next couple of weeks we will see gambling, immigration, and other high profile bills brought to the Senate floor for debate. What comes up for debate will be determined by the decisions of the Rules Committee. Without support from this body, no bill, regardless of how popular it may be with the people of Alabama, will come up for a vote.

On Tuesday the Senate set aside the sunset bills briefly in order for Senators to introduce bills. I dropped in SB500. This bill, which makes it a felony to recklessly elude the police in a high speed chase, has been introduced several times over the years. As a member of the House, I twice co-sponsored this bill with Jeff McLaughlin (D-Guntersville). You may recall, Rep. McLaughlin is the guy who has repeatedly sponsored the Pac-to-Pac bill that actually does something good.

For many years, there has been much concern over the number of deadly automobile accidents involving people running from persuing police cars. Many times the victims of these deadly crashes are innocent bystanders. Police officers will tell you that crimminals are aware of the lack of serious penalties for such eluding and that by making this action a felony would save lives in the future.

As previously mentioned, this bill has been repeatedly introduced but has never had a floor vote. Apparently some legislators have assumed that possible abuse by prosecutors takes precedent over curtailing the killing of the innocent. I know that the numerous tragedies that are reported in the Mobile area are not unique to the state. I hope that victims groups and law enforcement organizations will someday successfully lobby their lawmakers to pass this potential life-saving bill. We shall see.