A bill seeking stronger regulation over mopeds in North Carolina has scaled back, no longer proposing a liability insurance requirement.
House Bill 1145, which passed the House on June 19, received committee tweaks last week that dropped the insurance provision. Instead, the bill in its current form would order a study of whether further regulation is needed over the low-speed vehicles.
It would also require owners to register their mopeds with the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles and pay the same fee applied to motorcycles. Currently, that’s $18.
“Through the committee process, it became apparent that the provision involving the requirement for liability insurance coverage needed further study,” said Rep. Chris Millis, the Pender County Republican, in a legislative update Monday night. He’s a primary sponsor of the bill.
“The study was necessary due to the fact that most insurers require individuals to possess a state issued driver’s license in order to access driving history and therefore set the premium rate in which insurance would be provided,” he explained.
Currently, anyone at least 16 years old can operate a moped on a state highway or public roadway without a license.
Millis said he agreed with the study provision, noting the speed of the current legislative session, which will wind down around month’s end. Moving too quickly on the law’s making could cause unintended consequences, he said.
Under law today, anyone driving a moped must wear a helmet. The vehicle can’t legally have the ability to travel faster than 30 miles per hour.
The study called for in the bill’s current draft would examine data on mopeds’ involvement in traffic accidents, their causes and the number and types of related injuries. If the bill passes as written, the report would be due to the legislature in time for its 2015 session.
During a June 17 House committee debate on the previous, insurance-requiring version of the bill, lawmakers including Mike Stone (R-Lee) argued mopeds are one of the few options many hardship-facing residents have to reach places of employment. He said the state shouldn’t regulate the vehicles out of affordability.
Related story: Committee debates moped insurance
Rep. Phil Shepard (R-Onslow), however, said he’s heard countless complaints about mopeds not having to carry insurance, and that it’s only fair to mandate such financial responsibility if they’re going use the same highways as higher-speed vehicles. Shepard is another of the bill’s primary sponsors.
Rep. Frank Iler (R-Brunswick), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, noted Monday that moped regulation bills have surfaced in every recent session of the General Assembly without enough support to advance.
Shepard in 2013 introduced a version to require registration, insurance and a new minimum moped driving age of 17.
That bill died in its first committee assignment.
The current bill, which passed the House on an 83-29 vote, was referred to the Senate Insurance Committee on Monday.
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Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter:@benbrownmedia
