Additional New Virginia Laws

2 Oct

In addition to the abusive driver fees I mentioned on August 27, 2007, other Virginia laws became effective July 1, 2007. Some of those outlined in the newsletter (from the state Senator from my district, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis) relate to child restraint devices, HOV lane exemptions for clean special fuel vehicles, HPV vaccinations, photo-red lights, minimum wage and sex offenders.

Child restraint devices

Until July 1, children up to age 5 had to be secured in child restrain devices while riding in a motor vehicle. This age has been increased to 8. My six year old nephew knew what he was talking about when he said that I need to buy him a car seat for when he goes somewhere with me. I certainly did not know. I thought he was just inviting himself out with me.

HOV lane exemptions for clean special fuel vehicles

The HOV lane exemptions for hybrid and clean burning fuel vehicles has been extended another year. Have fun if you can find one of these cars. I hear there’s a waiting list for this area. Also remember that you need the special license plate to take advantage of this.

HPV vaccinations

Effective October 1, 2008, females are required to receive three properly spaced doses of HPV vaccine with the first dose administered before the child enters sixth grade. Even though this is required a parent or guardian can opt out of the vaccine. Studies have linked cervical cancer with HPV which is what makes this drug important. My issue with this has to do with whether enough testing was done with this drug. The vaccine was rushed to market which in my opinion makes it experimental. There are several other drugs that have recently been found to cause all kinds of complications. I would want a drug to be thoroughly tested before taking it or forcing anyone else to take it. Also, wouldn’t it make sense to vaccinate boys as well if the vaccine is indeed effective? Obviously I’m not a medical expert but that seems like common sense to me. Were boys/young men tested?

Photo-red lights

Localities in Virginia again have been given the authority to use red-light cameras. They were using them before on a provisional basis which ended because the state legislature neglected to renew the authority back in 2005. It’s official this time so watch out. The good news is that the timing of yellow lights will be increased.

Minimum wage

Apparently persons over the age of 65 were excluded from the provisions of the Virginia Minimum Wage Act prior to July 1, 2007. The good news is that they must now be paid at least the minimum wage as that seemed unfair to me. I wonder how this will impact Wal-Mart.

Sex offenders

Four bills were passed providing for the following: 1) Sex offenders are required to include in sex offender registration, email addresses and internet or instant messaging screen names that are used or will be used; 2) Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are required to provide residents with information on how to access the Virginia’s sex offender registry on the Virginia State Police’s website; 3) An adult convicted of a sexually violent offense is guilty of a Class 6 felony if present during school hours at a public or private elementary or secondary school or child day care center; and 4) Sex offender treatment offices or similar facilities are prohibited from being located in a residentially zoned subdivision.

I get the gist of what they are trying to do here. I agree with items 3 and 4. For item 2, I think that the nursing home facilities should actually give residents easy access to the sexual offenders registry. Simply giving them the information, may not be enough especially when this registry is online. Item 1 is simply not sufficient. Any regular user of the internet knows that I can get a new email address and/or screen name in a matter of seconds. In addition, there is no way to ensure that a sexual offender is using his/her own name to register for new accounts. Even if you specifically tracked the offender’s internet usage at home, how can you prevent the offender from using the computers at the library or some internet cafe? It’s pretty much impossible. I think that law was passed because people didn’t understand how anonymizing the internet can be. If a sex offender is using a computer to find victims, I would support taking away internet access all together. Hackers have their computers taken away and their crime falls in the white collar realm.

Other laws

The summary list of new laws can be found at WTOP News. You can dig around for them at Virginia’s Legislative Information System.

I just saw something funny on the list: “Smoking is prohibited within 20 feet of a gasoline pump where a car is fueling.” It seems like common sense to me but hey I don’t smoke.

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