Minnesota: Motorist Bill - SF 1971
There is a bill being considered by the Minnesota Legislature that requires your attention.
The Minnesota Senate passed a bill (SF1971) that includes these three provisions:
1) Primary seat belt enforcement law
- Allows an officer to ticket you solely because you are not wearing your seatbelt
2) Cities can issue "administrative" speeding tickets that don't go on your record unless you contest the ticket
- Allows local municipalities to give out tickets with minimal restrictions or standards to motorists with all the money going to the local government. This is a guaranteed prescription for small town speed traps and widespread use of traffic tickets for revenue generation. This also opens the door to red light cameras and photo radar speed enforcement.
3) The DOT has been requested to recommend to the legislature that speed limits be reduced from 30 to 25 in residential districts and from 55 to 30 in rural areas within city limits.
- The wording of the bill is a thinly disguised ruse to provide an excuse to lower the speed limits rather than doing an objective study to set reasonable speed limits.
Here’s the link to the full bill text: http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=S1971.4.html&session=ls85
We need your help. Please take the time to contact your legislators and let them know how you feel. You can find out who they are by clicking here. Some talking points on seatbelt laws can be found here: http://www.motorists.org/seatbelts/
