Senate Bill 64 is a common sense bill that you cannot believe is already law in Delaware, and yet this bill or something like it has been introduced in 2017 and 2019, and it never passes. It passed the Senate 20-0-1 in April 2019, but it never got any play in the House.
This bill would place a duty on the drivers of cars and trucks to clean ice and snow off of their vehicles prior to driving on the State’s highways. A person who violates this law may be stopped by police and issued a penalty of not less than $25 or more than $75 for each offense regardless of whether any snow or ice is dislodged from the motor vehicle.
If ice and/or snow is dislodged from a moving vehicle and then strikes another vehicle or pedestrian causing physical injury or property damage, then the offending non-commercial driver shall be fined not less than $200 or more than $1,000 for each offense. If it is a commercial driver of a tractor trailer, they will be fined not less than $500 or more than $1,500 for each offense.
| Senate Bill 64 Sponsors | Yes Vote | No Vote |
| Townsend, Sturgeon, Sokola, Walsh | ||
| Osienski, Brady, K.Johnson, K.Williams | ||
| Current Status — Senate Transportation 2/26/21 |
It is going to be interesting to see if anyone speaks out against this bill. I’ve heard some whispers that people are concerned that this bill, as is the case with a lot of fines and fees, will be more likely to hit the low-income and minority communities more than affluent white ppl. Not sure if anyone is going to testify to such Weds when this comes up in committee or not.
It’s a danger no matter who does it — but I really think that the biggest danger is from trucks. Sheets of ice shedding from trucks can go right through windshields.
Agree…no one driving a late model BMW or Lexus will be assessed these fines.
Hmmmm, remove the snow from your car. As trucks travel our roads loaded to the top with stones. The stones fall out causing a danger and break windshields. Any LAW for that???? But remove the soft snow please.