Representative David Tollett

City, County & Local Affairs Committee (House) — Jan. 21, 2021 (12:08)

like sign. Hearing none, congratulations. Your bill passes. Thank you, committee. Thank you very much. Kevin, I'd like to see

City, County & Local Affairs Committee (House) — Jan. 21, 2021 (9:09)

yourself and go ahead and help him with testimony.

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (24:18)

And so I'm all for what you're doing, and I'm very supportive of it. I think at some point in time, we need to look at the enforcement part of this and see what we can do to beef it up

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (23:40)

And I learned that there's four counties in the entire state of Arkansas that do a really good job of enforcing this. And getting law enforcement to follow behind buses or watch out for this, I mean, if they're present, they can see it, they can handle it, and that's the best case scenario. If we're just having to report it, that's where it becomes problematic, even if you have video on the side of your buses, which we did. Out of the 20-some-odd reports that I've made to our local law enforcement, only one of those actually made to prosecution.

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (23:01)

As a route driver, I don't always see who it is. I don't always have time to write down the license plate number, those kinds of things, to be able to turn the person in because I'm watching over the safety of my students. But if I did, and I did turn it in, then it's very unlikely that it's going to get prosecuted. So I actually did a little bit of research on this, And two years ago, I pulled however many tickets were written in the state of Arkansas for actually illegally passing a school bus.

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (22:29)

is the ability to determine, number one, who is the person passing it And then also the law enforcement's willingness to be able to do that and then the prosecutor's ability or willingness to be able to prosecute it. So I'll give you an example of this. I've turned in, as a route driver, I would probably have two of these instances every day.

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (22:04)

want to say I've been a bus driver. I was a coach. I was a route driver. I'm a school superintendent. and I just want to say this. I mean, I don't have a problem with what you're trying to do here. The issue within the state of Arkansas that we have with the enforcement of people who rigorously pass school buses

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (12:18)

whether you actually have proper lighting at any given time? Well,

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (11:46)

there's street lights, you know, every two houses, the area is well lit and I have like a little dinky light on the back of my golf cart versus it's completely dark. There's no street lights and I have a little dinky light on my golf cart. I mean, as far as proper lights are concerned, depending on, you know, even when the vehicle is being used, I guess who interprets that,

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (11:13)

shall have proper lights on all all-terrain vehicle or golf cart. Proper lights to me is not a very clearly defined term and I guess my my question is is who interprets what proper lighting is on on these things and whether it's on I mean is that just up for discretion like I mean it if for instance, I guess if I'm in a nice gated neighborhood and I'm driving past the time,

Public Transportation (House) — Jan. 28, 2021 (10:59)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In reading this law, and I understand that this is not what necessarily this bill does, but on line number 29 of the first page, it says,