New Massachusetts Safe Driving Law

 

On July 2, 2010 Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation that bans text-messaging for all Massachusetts drivers, prohibits junior operators from using cell phones and institutes new license renewal procedures for mature drivers, among other provisions.

The Safe Driving Law became effective in Massachusetts on September 30, 2010. The law creates a series of new violations, which the Registery of Motor Vehicles (RMV) Division, Mass Department of Transportation (DOT) staff and the Merit Rating Board are working to program and implement.

These new violations include:

  1. Use of a Mobile Phone by a Junior Operator- Civil Offense- No insurance surcharge
    Reporting an emergency is the only exception. Drivers are encouraged to pull over and stop the vehicle to report the emergency.
    • 1st offense-$100 assessment, 60-day license suspension and attitudinal course
    • 2nd offense-$250 assessment, 180-day suspension
    • 3rd or subsequent offense-$500 assessment, 1-year suspension
    • $100 reinstatement fee for any suspension
    • Knowledge and road test required for reinstatement

  2. Improper Use of a Mobile Phone by Operators 18 and Over- Civil Offense-No insurance surcharge (One hand must be on the steering wheel at all times and no use of device can interfere with driving)
    • 1st offense-$35 assessment
    • 2nd offense in 12 months-$75 assessment
    • 3rd offense in 12 months-$150 assessment

    3. *Comment posted on DOT website by DOT personnel:

    Drivers [18 and over] my (sic) use a mobile phone or 2-way radio to speak on the phone, as long as one hand remains on the wheel at all times. Posted by: M Buhtz | August 26, 2010 at 02:34 PM

  3. Sending/Reading Text Messages- Civil Offense-No insurance surcharge
    Operators cannot use any mobile electronic device to write, send, or read an electronic message including text messages, emails, instant messages or accessing the internet while operating a vehicle. Mobile electronic device includes mobile telephone, text messaging device, paging device, PDA, laptop computer, electronic equipment capable of playing video games or video disks or can take/transmit digital photographs or can receive a television broadcast. Mobile Device does not include any equipment permanently or temporarily installed to provide     navigation, emergency assistance or rear seat video entertainment. Law applies even if the vehicle is stopped in traffic.
    • 1st offense-$100 assessment
    • 2nd offense-$250 assessment
    • 3rd or subsequent offense-$500 assessment
  1. Negligent Operation & Injury from Mobile Phone Use- Criminal Offense- Insurance surcharge   

Elders Must Apply or Renew In Person
License applicants age 75 and older must apply for initial Massachusetts licensure or license renewal in a RMV office. Use of the Internet for license renewals will no longer be allowed for these applicants. All applicants, regardless of age, that obtain or renew a license in a branch office are required to undergo a vision test or provide a vision screening certificate to complete the transaction.

Medical Fitness Reporting
Health care providers and law enforcement may report operators believed not to be physically or mentally capable of safely operating due to cognitive or functional impairment

The RMV must promulgate regulations based on recommendations from the RMV Medical Advisory Board designating cognitive or functional impairments likely to affect an individual’s ability to operate.

Analysis of/Opinion on Medical Fitness Reporting Provisions
A doctor, a nurse, or a policeman is not mandated to make a report. Even though the law allows health care providers to be immune from a lawsuit if they file a report in good faith — the fact that they don’t have to file a report means they can just look the other way. In fact, the law protects them for not filing: “A health care provider or law enforcement officer who does not report shall be immune from civil liability that might otherwise result from not making the report.”

Once a report is filed, the RMV is responsible for doing a “medical evaluation” of the driver. The RMV has 30 days to “conduct a review to determine the operator’s capacity for continued licensure to operate a motor vehicle.” Because there are no current standards for judging “capacity to operate,” the new laws says the commissioner of public health and the RMV will consult with medical experts on cognitive or functional impairments, to come up with regulations “designating the cognitive or functional impairments that are likely to affect a person’s ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.” The RMV has no medical evaluation process yet. If a report is filed, the evaluation done by the Registry will include cognitive and medical functioning. This is all new territory for the RMV, and many problems may arise as they put together the medical evaluation regulations.

Drivers of any age who are incapable of operating a vehicle should be off the road. The law is right to insist that whatever your impairments are, if they don’t affect your ability to drive a car, they are not relevant to the RMV. This safe driver law should have mandated safety reports by doctors, because when the rubber hits the road, this law is only as good as the reports that get made, and only as helpful as the evaluations that follow. And any senior who loses his or her license should be automatically eligible for public transportation — a detail state lawmakers refused to consider.

See also: AMA’s “ Physician’s Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers” 2nd Edition: http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/older_drivers/pdf/811298.pdf

-From: “MassDOT Reminder: Safe Driving Law”, August 25, 2010, http://transportation.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2010/08/rmv-reminder-safe-driving-law-.html, retrieved 9/10/10. Analysis from: How good is the new ‘Safe Driver’ law? , by Al Norman, Executive Director of Mass Home Care, http://fiftyplusadvocate.com/archives/1647, posted on 27 August 2010, retrieved 9/23/10.

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