GREAT NEWS! As of Friday, June 25th, 2021, the vulnerable road users bills became LAW. The new statute has two sections. The first defines a vulnerable road user as any person using the road without the benefit of a motor vehicle. Cyclists, pedestrians, EMTs, police officers and construction workers working in the street, people riding animals or scooting are all protected by this new law. The second section provides enhanced penalties for drivers who fail to take due care and injure, severely injure or kill a vulnerable road user.
We have been working on this legislation for a full decade and believe the definitions contained in the legislation as well as the enhanced penalties provided for drivers who fail to take due care will improve safety for all. With the alarming rate of traffic deaths in Rhode Island for the last two years, it is beyond time to enact the protections offered by a VRU law.
Thank you to all our supporters who made calls, wrote letters and testified at hearings. We also thank our primary sponsors Representative James McNamara and Senator Archambault for their leadership.