Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 11, 1991 TAG: 9102110064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LARRY O'DELL Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Your windshield wipers clear away the drizzle but you can see fine, so you decide not to turn on your lights.
If you think that sounds innocent enough, think again. If bills being considered by the General Assembly pass and are signed by the governor, three laws could be violated in the above scenario.
Bills approved by the House of Delegates and now being considered by the Senate would:
Make it illegal to raise a vehicle's body more than 2 inches above its frame.
Prohibit hood scoops that are more than 38 inches wide, 2 1/4 inches high and 52 1/4 inches long.
And require that motorists turn on their headlights during rain, sleet, snow or fog.
Those three bills have been touted by their supporters as safety measures.
Del. Robert Tata, R-Virginia Beach, said the bill on jacked-up vehicles is designed to close a loophole in legislation passed a few years ago. He said aficionados of high-rider trucks found they could circumvent the law limiting frame height by installing body lifts.
"This causes several safety problems," Tata said. "It throws off the vehicle's center of gravity, the headlights are so high that even on low beam they blind oncoming drivers, and the ball joints wear out faster."
"If you hit one head-on," he added, "it comes over your hood and smashes into your windshield."
The current law limits frame height to 30 inches in front, 31 inches in the rear. Tata's bill restricts body lifts to 2 inches, but the overall height still can't exceed the old standards.
Virginia State Police Lt. Howard Gregory said Tata's bill addresses a serious problem.
"Using lifts to jack up the body makes for a very dangerous vehicle," Gregory said. "It adversely affects the handling characteristics."
Norman Grimm, manager of traffic safety for AAA Potomac, said he was unaware of the hood-scoop bill. But he said he supported Tata's bill and the proposal on headlights.
"People need to remember that you use your headlights not only to see, but to be seen," Grimm said.
But perhaps the most controversial bills his organization is supporting, Grimm said, are proposals to make failure to wear seat belts a primary offense and to allow administrative revocation of driver's licenses in drunken driving cases.
Although Virginians are required to buckle up, current law prohibits police from citing violators unless the drivers are stopped for another offense. The Senate has approved and sent to the House a bill allowing police to stop seat-belt scofflaws.
The administrative revocation bill would allow magistrates to suspend the driver's license and issue a 15-day driving permit to people arrested for drunken driving. If the case is not resolved within 15 days, the driver would be stuck without a license.
by CNB