DES MOINES (AP) - A Council Bluffs lawmaker wants to stop spinning wheels from turning.
Rep. Doug Struyk wants to outlaw car and truck wheel covers fitted with flashy spinners that keep rotating after a vehicle has stopped. The Republican legislator says they can cause accidents.
The wheel covers, which have gained popularity in the past couple of years, are placed on pickups or refurbished older model cars as an accessory.
Struyk says they can make it difficult to tell whether a vehicle is moving or stopped.
His bill would make it a simple misdemeanor for a motorist to drive a vehicle equipped with the spinners, punishable by a fine of $10.
Struyk said he was nearly involved in an accident in November near Bentley, Iowa. He was driving a truck pulling a 16-foot trailer loaded with a dozen ladders. He approached an intersection as a car with the spinning wheel covers approached from another direction. He said the spinners made it appear as if the car might still be moving through the intersection, so he braked hard and the trailer nearly jackknifed.
He said he has noticed more of the spinners in recent months and that the more common they become, the more likely they are to cause an accident.
Spinning wheel covers are most popular with customers in their 20s, said Richard Riekeberg, manager of the Big O Tire store in Altoona. He said his store sells about six sets a year, at a cost of $2,000 per set.
"We do a lot of them for trucks, Suburbans, Tahoes, a lot of old-school cars with rear-wheel drive," said Brian Kaminski, a salesman for Wheel-One Inc. in St. Paul, Minn.
The company, based in Los Angeles, has 16 locations nationwide and sells tens of thousands of spinners a year, Kaminski said.
He said he didn't understand how the wheel covers could be considered dangerous.
"I've heard of people saying stuff like that," he said. "The way I think if it is, if you can't tell a car's not moving and you start going, maybe you shouldn't have a driver's license."
Struyk, who introduced the bill last week, said he knows law enforcement officers who agree with him and said lawmakers he has talked to see his point.
"I've talked to fellow legislators," Struyk said, "and haven't had anybody tell me I'm out of my mind yet."
No comments:
Post a Comment