Mississippi lawmakers have been asked to shell out $250,000 next year to maintain two jets used by state officials.

The Department of Finance and Administration included the money in its fiscal 2013 budget request recently submitted to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

About $175,000 of that would go to the renovation of the interior and exterior of the state’s Cessna Citation, DFA director Kevin Upchurch said.

DFA also needs $19,000 to train a mechanic after the state’s longtime mechanic retired this year. “We’re in the process of trying to find a new one,” Upchurch said.

He said the new mechanic will have to undergo specialized training for the Cessna and the state’s Beechcraft King Air. The state is contracting mechanical work out until the position is filled, DFA spokeswoman Kym Wiggins said.

About $30,000 is needed to cover scheduled maintenance and inspection fees for both planes.

The state purchased the Citation in 2005 – about a year after Gov. Haley Barbour took office, Wiggins said. The King Air was purchased in 2001.

The planes are used to whisk Mississippi political leaders and others across the state or country on state business.

Barbour’s office has said the aircraft is a vital tool in attracting firms to the state and conducting business efficiently.

House lawmakers for the past three years have unsuccessfully proposed selling the Citation – the aircraft most often used by Barbour. The effort was blocked in the Senate each time.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Johnny Stringer, D-Montrose, said he would like to see the plane sold. “It just costs too much to maintain it.”

As for the money for repairs: “It’s not gonna happen,” Stringer said.

Stringer said he’s not surprised that repairs are needed. “I imagine it’s just completely worn out.”

The planes have made nearly 80 trips this year at a cost of about $260,000 though Sept. 30, according to DFA records.

The Citation costs $1,800 per flight hour, while the King Air costs $1,150. That cost does not include pilot’s travel expenses and other aircraft fees that are billed separately.

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/rX52XFpz9LE/-250K-sought-work-jets

Believing she did nothing wrong and wanting to take the ticket to court, the 24-year-old nanny went home that night expecting to get a trial date in the mail. That’s what happened last year when she was cited for running a stop light on her way home from work, she explained.

Instead, Gagne received a letter five weeks later from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. The state had suspended her driver’s license for failing to comply with a law that changed – effective Jan. 1 – how the courts handle traffic tickets.

The state no longer assigns court dates in all traffic cases. Drivers must now specifically request trials within 30 days of getting a ticket – or risk the MVA suspending their licenses.

“I was completely shocked,” the Annapolis resident said. “I still thought it was the old way.”

Gagne was not alone. According to statistics obtained by The Capital, the number of Maryland drivers who’ve had their licenses suspended is soaring – up 35 percent this year.

The MVA suspended 89,868 licenses in the first seven months of 2011, according to the most recent data available. That is up from

66,609 during the same period in 2010 and 66,940 in 2009.

Driving while suspended is punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. If a police officer stops a person driving on a suspended license, the officer has the option of arresting the driver.

There is no fee to get a license reinstated, an MVA spokesman said. But a driver must take care of the underlying ticket before the state will lift the suspension.

Several attorneys pointed to the statistics last week as proof the state did not do enough to publicize the law change.

“That increase is astronomical,” said attorney Ted Staples, “A lot of these people getting caught up in this have probably never been in trouble before. … They probably had no idea they were driving suspended.”

Supporters of the law disagreed there wasn’t enough publicity. They noted the new rules have been outlined on every citation issued in the state since Jan. 1.

“I don’t know how they missed this. It’s all

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/Zue5jp-Ij7Y/Number-of-suspended-licenses-soaring.html

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Wil Craig didn’t text while driving, but he never minded when his friends did.

“I didn’t even care,” he said.

That changed nearly four years ago after Craig was seriously injured in a wreck on Ind. 56 near Jasper when the driver with whom Craig was riding tried to answer a text message.

Craig, now 21 and living in Louisville’s Clifton neighborhood, still needs help to live on his own. He speaks slowly and forgets easily. But he has made it his mission to urge motorists to ignore their mobile phones.

“I’m showing them my handicaps,” said Craig, who speaks at school assemblies and makes YouTube public-service videos. “But some people are thick-headed.”

Despite a rising number of states outlawing it, experts say drivers are more likely than ever to read their mobile phones or dash off a quick text when they should be watching the road.

But new technology is being harnessed to help when laws don’t — curbing texting and other mobile media while driving, or warning motorists of impending collisions.

Law enforcement and highway safety experts say the potential is promising, but unproven.

“There are a lot of these products out there, but it’s unclear how widely accepted these products will be,” said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Rising accident rates

Texting while driving is a rapidly rising danger, especially among young drivers who don’t realize how much they’re distracted, experts say.

In 2009, accidents in the United States involving distracted driving — which includes texting, eating, applying makeup or fiddling with a stereo — were responsible for 16 percent of traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That’s up from 10 percent in 2005, the agency said.

“It’s one of the most dangerous things a driver can do,” said Norman Chaffins, spokesman for the Kentucky State

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/shd4MbNV68E/Technology-laws-sharing-experiences-help-combat-texting-driving

By Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

In Print: Monday, October 24, 2011

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TALLAHASSEE — Greg Evers had heard people complain about how hard it is to renew your driver’s license in Florida, but it didn’t really hit home until he did it himself.

He was shocked at the records he had to provide: his birth certificate, Social Security card and two documents proving his address.

“The lady behind the counter lives down the road and knows exactly who I am and knows exactly where I live,” Evers said. “This has just gone a little too far.”

Evers had come face-to-face with the federal Real ID law, which Florida enacted in 2010 to combat identity theft and prevent illegal immigrants and terrorists from getting official state ID cards.

Now Evers, a Republican state senator from Crestview, has filed a bill to eliminate many of the law’s requirements.

Senate Bill 220, called the Florida Driver’s License Citizen Protection Act, would drop the requirement that drivers produce Social Security cards, birth certificates, passports and proof of their home addresses.

Under the bill, first-time applicants for a license would have to show proof of citizenship but others would receive automatic renewals. The bill also would force the state to destroy all motorist verification documents on file.

Rep. Larry Ahern, R-St. Petersburg, has filed a similar bill, HB 109, to prevent the state from stockpiling information on citizens. Ahern recalled a divorced woman crying in his office over problems in complying with proof of a name change.

“She’s already in an emotional state,” Ahern said. “You’ve got to prove you’re not a terrorist. … Have we overreacted to some of the things that have come down from the federal level in the area of homeland

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/w6CI9Hvgisw/1198258

When Apple introduced its new iPhone 4S earlier this month, tech analysts raved about the phone’s voice-activated personal assistant, nicknamed “Siri.” One thing they loved was how Siri can be used to dictate text messages without typing — or read incoming texts aloud — a convenience that seemed perfect for life behind a steering wheel. “Big news for drivers,” declared The New York Times’ David Pogue. The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg noted that he’d had success using Siri to dictate e-mails and text messages in the car.

There’s just one problem. Texting while driving is illegal in dozens of states. And while some states have written their laws to allow for hands-free use of emerging voice-activated texting technologies, many others haven’t.

For instance, laws in Maine and Michigan disallow reading text messages while driving — something that iPhone 4S users may be compelled to do if they want to spell-check Siri’s dictation before sending a text. Connecticut and Maryland prohibit text messaging from handheld devices, a possible pitfall since Siri users must push the iPhone’s home button to activate the system. Vermont’s statute bans the sending of electronic communications, making no allowance for hands-free texting.

Siri is not the only voice-activated application available to drivers. Similar applications, including Vlingo and Sensory, can be downloaded to cell phones. Carmakers are in on the action, too. Ford and BMW have designed speech-to-text systems for some of their newest vehicles, allowing drivers to hear messages as they are received and dictate messages that the car’s systems will send.

The new technologies are designed to make texting while driving safer — and in some cases, to tuck neatly into legal exceptions that states such as Indiana and Illinois have carved into texting bans, specifically allowing for hands-free or voice-activated devices.

New York’s law banning texting while driving specifies that text messages amount to “manual communication.” Voice-operated systems would be considered something different, says Richard Carey, deputy director of the New York Chiefs

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/NkMCzd_GN0M/story