California Governor to handicapped: “Get a car, you moron”

Governor Jerry Brown issued his final legislative update for the 2014 season. Everything related to cyclist and pedestrian safety was vetoed.


School Traffic

After Brown vetoed Eric Linder’s AB 2337 to increase license suspensions for convicted hit-and-run drivers, pedestrian and cycling safety advocates around the state urged Brown to sign the remain three hit-and-run bills on his desk. Brown vetoed all of those bills today.

In his veto message for AB 47, Brown said he wanted to test an expansion of the “Yellow Alert” system for other categories before legislating it for suspected hit-and-run drivers. A.B. 47 would require the existing “Amber Alert” system to be available also for law enforcement to use locate suspected hit-and-run vehicles.

AB 1532 mandates a drivers license suspension with possible fine and prison time for hit-and-runs when a person (vs a vehicle) is hit by a car. In his veto message, Governor Brown tells pedestrians and cyclists to “get a job and car, hippie.”

AB 2673 would disallow civil compromise in hit-and-run cases, in which a compromise may be reached in the criminal case if the alleged hit-and-run driver agrees to a civil resolution with the victim or his estate. In his veto message, Brown cited the backlog in the criminal courts.

Finally, Brown vetoed AB 2398 — Mark Levine’s Vulnerable User Bill — because “current laws are sufficient.” Under California law, it costs you $70 if you injure somebody with your vehicle, or up to a whopping $90 for “great bodily injury.” Levine’s bill would have increased those fines to $220 and $330 respectively when the injured is a “vulnerable road user.” Vulernable road users were defined as pedestrians, highway workers, cyclist, those on horseback and wheelchair users.

2 Comments

  1. The quotes here should probably not be presented as quotes, especially regarding the linked veto message as there isn’t anything in the message even slightly approaching a disparagement of hippies.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.