Truckers who don’t chain up and choke traffic in the mountains would have to pay a $1,000 fine under a compromise version of a bill that was stalled at the Capitol for a month.
The legislation unanimously passed the House Transportation Committee unanimously today after Rep. Dan Gibbs backed off a plan to slap four points on truckers’ driving records.
The Silverthorne Democrat also pushed the Colorado Department of Transportation to come up with $2.47 million to expand chain-up spaces along Interstate 70.
Truck drivers – who swayed the committee to halt the bill last month – supported the new version.
“We realize there is a problem up there,” said Greg Fulton, president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association. “We’re committed to solving that problem.”
I-70 was shut down 116 hours last year while tractor-trailer rigs without chains spun out on ice and snow and blocked the road.
The first draft of House Bill 1229 “put a bull’s-eye directly on the backs of truckers,” said Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, who reversed his vote Thursday.
Truck drivers argued the original bill was unjust, punishing them for causing traffic jams when chain-up stations are inadequate and unsafe – often too close to the highway where cars are whizzing by. A Loveland trucker was killed while chaining up near Georgetown this winter when an SUV pinned him against his rig.
The legislation had pitted truckers against the ski industry, mountain community mayors and law officers fed up with traffic shutdowns.
It took a month of meetings for Gibbs and Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, co-sponsor of the bill, to strike a compromise.
The legislation, now headed to a committee that will consider its fiscal impact, raises the fine from $100 to $500 for truck drivers caught disobeying the chain law. If they block a lane, the fine doubles to $1,000.
The current $100 fine is “the cost of doing business” for some truckers and is cheaper than buying a set of chains, which can cost $250, Gibbs said.
Gibbs removed the driver’s license points provision after the Colorado State Patrol told him 80 percent of chain-law violations are against out-of-state truckers. The burden of personal responsibility that Gibbs wanted to put on law-breaking drivers likely would not translate to other states, which don’t have the same point systems and may not have chain laws.
The measure also allows the transportation department to contract with tow operators who could sell or rent chains and help truckers chain-up. And the state plans to lower the speed limit near chain-up stations.
As for enforcement, Gibbs said he will ask Gov. Bill Ritter this week to increase the number of patrol officers in the mountains.
Mountain town leaders, transportation officials and truck drivers who worked on the legislation are likely to meet for several more months and suggest further improvements, Gibbs said.
CDOT allotted $2.47 million for chain-up stations during a commission meeting Thursday with a goal of increasing the spaces along westbound I-70 from 56 to 116 and along the eastbound highway from 170 to 216.
The department plans to build six new chain-up stations, spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
