Montana Legislature Considers Two Off-Road Vehicle Bills

The Montana legislature is set to consider two key bills this week. The first, SB383, would require all off-road vehicles (except motorcycles and snowmobiles) to display a full-sized license plate on both the front and back of the vehicle. The second, HB614, would create a new penalty for anyone violating travel restrictions on any of Montanans public lands whether federal or state owned. The penalty would be a maximum of $500 and up to six month in jail.

Currently, machines in Montana only require vehicle owners to display a small decal on their machine, more to demonstrate registration fee payment than to provide any kind of functional identifier. Anyone who has tried to record illegal behavior can attest that the current system simply does not work and perpetuates a sense of anonymity for violators. Back in 2007, Bill Burgund was clipped by an ATV at an estimated 45 mph, catching Bill’s crutch, knocking him to the ground and wrenching his shoulder. From the ground and in great pain, Bill looked up at the ATV rider who had run him down. The rider looked back — then hit the throttle and took off.

Burgund is a trained law enforcement officer who made his living identifying fleeing perpetrators. But in this case, there was no way to identify the hit-and-run driver. A previous bill proposal that was dropped earlier this month would have required this machine to only have a small motorcycle sized plate on the front of the machine. For Burgund, it would have been useless.

Not all experiences with illegal ORV use are as dramatic as Burgund’s; luckily people are rarely assaulted by a speeding machine. However, roads and trails are restricted for reasons ranging from protecting wildlife habitat to reducing conflicts with other people. Montana does not currently have a criminal penalty specific to ORV violations.

The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission meets annually to adopt rules as part of the hunting regulations, which includes all federally approved travel plans on public lands. Therefore, game wardens cite motorized travel violations on public lands during hunting seasons as a FWP Commission Rule violation. However, there is no state criminal penalty outside of hunting season specific to illegal ORV use off public highways. Additionally, state traffic laws do not apply to federal motorized trails and travel violations on state lands are handled through the civil process, not as a criminal offense. HB614 would fix this problem and establish clear authority for all law enforcement officials; game wardens would not be restricted to enforcing the rules only during hunting season. Furthermore, local hunting groups and even the Ravalli Co. Off-Road Users Association support this bill, and with their support we hope its passage will be swift.

SB383 will have a committee hearing this week, and if all the Democrats lend their support, then it will pass with one additional Republican vote. Afterwards, the Senate will have only one short week to pass the bill and send it to the House. Likewise, HB614 will need to pass out of the House Transportation Committee this week in order to have a full floor vote next week.

To read each bill, click on the following links:

SB383 -  http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billpdf/SB0383.pdf

HB614 - http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billpdf/HB0614.pdf