Legislature(2005 - 2006)CAPITOL 106
03/17/2005 08:00 AM House STATE AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB36 | |
| HB178 | |
| HB12 | |
| HB34 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 178 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 12 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 34 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 186 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| = | SB 36 | ||
HB 12-TVS AND MONITORS IN MOTOR VEHICLES 9:21:40 AM CHAIR SEATON announced that the next order of business was HOUSE BILL NO. 12, "An Act relating to televisions and monitors in motor vehicles." 9:22:00 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt the committee substitute (CS) to HB 12, Version 24-LS0058\L, Luckhaupt, 3/9/05, as a work draft. There being no objection, Version L was before the committee. 9:23:43 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG reviewed the changes incorporated into the committee substitute. He said: This attempted to deal with all the issues that were raised [at the last committee meeting] with the exception of one that we were not able to solve. First, on line 5 of page 1, we changed "operation of" in the title to "driving". ... Secondly, on line 9, we inserted "laptop type portable computer". Third, we added in there the [paragraph] 2, ... which includes also "devices that are visible to or intended to be viewed by the driver and that would visually distract the driver, excluding devices used in the operation of the vehicle." ... That dealt with everything we had raised in the previous hearing of the bill with the exception of the word "watching", which Representative Gatto had asked [us to define], and the intent of that is watching to the extent that you are distracted, because you couldn't be totally watching it and driving, but the point is that you're watching it to the extent that you're distracted. 9:25:24 AM DOUGLAS JOHNSON, Senior Director, Technology Policy, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), testified in support of the bill. He commented that HB 12 "follows very closely with a model that we've been supportive of across the country." He noted that CEA developed a model bill on the subject of in-vehicle video displays, and in 2003 both California and Indiana adopted this model. He noted that CEA had submitted written comments to the committee and he pointed out the key points: [Consumer Electronics Association is] looking for a consistent treatment of this across the country, which obviously benefits drivers and law enforcement, as well as the industry. Secondly, we're looking for flexibility with regard to the bill. If you start singling out individual technologies or products which are constantly changing in our industry, then the legislation needs to be frequently amended, and so we're looking for a more comprehensive approach that targets the behavior that's in question rather than itemizing specific technologies. And thirdly, ... we want to focus on the problem at hand, which is ... watching, not driving. So we believe that the model approach, which we've been supportive of in other states, tracks well with the introduced version of HB 12.... 9:28:06 AM MR. JOHNSON addressed the changes made in Version L. He said: We don't have any comment about the first change. That's fine. The mention of laptop portable computer, however, is an example of identifying a specific product or technology. The problem with that, of course, as I mentioned, is that technology is always changing and if you start [to] list products, we're not sure when you'd stop. ... There's a lot of devices out there that are portable, that have screens, and we think it's a better approach to focus more generically on the problem. ... Just a quick comment on the [term] "interlock," which appears in a couple of different places in the bill: a couple of states have used that term. It's not in our model approach. We favor a more generic term called, "device" instead of "interlock" ... because of the confusion about what interlock really means.... That was one specific concern we had there. The other had to do with the removal of "power provision", which is in [subsection (b)] of the bill. We would suggest and support "disable" rather than "remove power". ... We feel that this is redundant since it's already included in [paragraph] 5 of the bill, but if it is to be included in [subsection (b)], we favor the more generic term "disable". When you remove power from something, that's kind of hard to define with a technology product, and somewhat hard to do in an engineering sense. 9:30:30 AM CHAIR SEATON asked Mr. Johnson if paragraph (5) of the bill comports with his testimony. MR. JOHNSON replied affirmatively, "save for the term 'interlock device'." 9:31:44 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt Conceptual Amendment 1, as follows: Page 2, line 19, after "has" Delete "an interlock" Insert "a" REPRESENTATIVE GATTO objected and noted that the word "interlock" appears in several places in the bill. 9:33:30 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt an amendment to Conceptual Amendment 1: Page 2, line 6, after "moving." Delete "An interlock or other mechanism" Insert "A device" [There being no objection, it was so ordered.] REPRESENTATIVE GATTO suggested that Representative Gruenberg make an additional change to Amendment 1, changing the words "removes power" on page 2, line 6, and substituting the word, "disables." 9:34:26 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt a second amendment to Conceptual Amendment 1: Page 2, lines 6-7, after "that" Delete "removes power from" Insert "disables" [There being no objection, it was so ordered.] REPRESENTATIVE GATTO removed his objection. There being no objection, Conceptual Amendment 1, as amended, was adopted. 9:35:42 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt Conceptual Amendment 2, as follows: Page 2, line 12, after "a" Delete "Global Positioning System" Insert "navigation or global positioning" There being no objection, Conceptual Amendment 2 was adopted. 9:36:47 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG commented that he was not going to limit [the bill] to "low speed maneuvering," although this was Mr. Johnson's recommendation. MR. JOHNSON responded that he had no objection to leaving that out. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG asked Mr. Johnson if any he had any other suggestions that the committee may have missed. MR. JOHNSON reiterated that CEA would recommend deleting the reference to "laptop type portable computer" on page 1, lines 9- 10. CHAIR SEATON said that he would like to leave that language in the bill. 9:39:32 AM CHAIR SEATON closed public testimony. 9:39:41 AM REPRESENTATIVE GATTO turned attention to the words "laptop type portable computer" and commented: A computer itself is an instrument that ... has no real reason to be stared at or looked at; the only thing we're really concerned about is the display. And so, adding "laptop type portable computer" without somehow connecting it to the screen that is with it - the computer itself is not something anyone would look at. CHAIR SEATON noted lines 7-8 on page 1, which say "A person may not drive a motor vehicle while watching a". He commented, "Everybody knows what a laptop is." REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said he believes that the screen is part of the computer, so the word "computer" includes the screen. 9:41:20 AM REPRESENTATIVE LYNN moved to report CSHB 12, Version 24- LS0058\L, Luckhaupt, 3/9/05, as amended, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal note. 9:41:57 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG objected for discussion purposes. He said that he has been in touch with the Alaska Department of Law, and that department will deal with this bill when it is in the House Judiciary Standing Committee. He removed his objection. 9:42:12 AM CHAIR SEATON asked if there was any further objection. There being none, CSHB 12(STA) moved from House State Affairs Standing Committee.
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