ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
A $12.50 SURCHARGE on speeding tickets and a $25 surcharge on drunken driving and reckless driving convictions would raise about $8million a year, the bill's backers say.
Joan Manley had to use her wheelchair to get to a Senate committee meeting Thursday because a drunken driver plowed into her car 12 years ago.
``They found his tire tracks on the front seat of my car. ... He was very drunk,'' the Lexington woman said.
Manley's injury isn't unique: There are 200 spinal cord injuries every year in Virginia, and 40 percent of them are caused by motor vehicle accidents.
A bill before the General Assembly would make drivers pay for the damage they can cause. It would levy a $12.50 surcharge on speeding tickets and a $25 surcharge on drunken driving and reckless driving convictions.
The levy would raise about $8 million a year. Forty percent would go toward spinal cord research, 40 percent would pay for rehabilitation, and the rest would go for education and administration.
``Others who follow me may be able to benefit,'' Manley told the Senate Education and Health Committee, which endorsed the bill and sent it to the Finance Committee.
If the bill becomes law, it would more than double the $2 million currently being spent on spinal cord injury research in Virginia, said Dr. John Jane, chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Virginia.
That money could give researchers the resources to find a way to regrow nerve tissue, he said.
``We are forced to tell these young people that they will have to spend the rest of their lives in wheelchairs,'' Jane said. ``That doesn't have to be the case. ... It's not going to solve the problem tomorrow, but it is going to solve the problem.''
If scientists succeed, people such as actor Christopher Reeve could walk again. Reeve, best known for his ``Superman'' movie roles, broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping competition in Culpeper. He has become a leading advocate for spinal cord research.
``This is what Christopher Reeve is working for,'' Jane said.
Florida, Kentucky and Texas have programs similar to the one proposed in Virginia, said Susan Howley, director of research at the nonprofit American Paralysis Association based in Springfield, N.J.
The Kentucky fund was established in 1994 and has collected about $3million, making it one of the largest pots of money anywhere for spine injury research.
James Rothrock, a lobbyist on handicapped issues who was paralyzed in a sledding accident in 1965, said he doubted the bill would lead to requests from other worthy causes looking for more money.
``I think the assembly understands the value of this and won't be swept up in a wave of surcharges,'' he said.
``This is based on the fact that there is a direct link between the injury and motor vehicle accidents,'' said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Emily Couric, D-Charlottesville.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB