By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
During the long, often brutal Montana winters, Montana drivers are prone to leaving their vehicles running unattended to keep them warm and comfortable, but whether the vehicle be parked at your home, your office, the store, or wherever, technically every single person who does it is breaking the law.
Local Rep. Alan Doane thinks that’s absolutely ridiculous, and he’s working to change it.
Doane has introduced a bill — HB 241 — which would revise state law by striking the language which makes it illegal to leave a motor vehicle running unattended.
Doane, like many other Montanans during the winter months, has been letting his vehicles “warm up” unattended for years. He, like most anyone else, never thought much of it, and certainly didn’t think he was breaking any laws until he saw a news report about it.
“I read an article in the Billings Gazette and the police officer mentioned it was illegal to leave your car running unattended, and I thought, ‘How silly is that?’” he said.
Doane checked the Montana Code Annotated himself and, sure enough, there is a statute in Montana law which makes it illegal to leave a vehicle running unattended.
One of the first things that jumped out at him was that the law had been on the books since 1955. Doane said it became obvious to him that the law had originally been passed to target vehicles with manual transmissions — which would have been the vast majority of cars at the time — which are more apt to slip out of gear and roll away, especially with the vehicles of that era, which had far fewer safety features than today’s cars.
Doane said it’s obvious the old law does not match current realities and needs to go.
“It’s just one of those archaic laws that’s on the books that needs to get out of there,” he said.
And for more reasons than people just wanting to keep their cars warm during the winter, Doane added. Many newer vehicles today employ “remote start” technology. But with the current law on the books, it is technically illegal under Montana law to start a vehicle with a remote control because the driver is not in the vehicle.
“Remote start will become legal in Montana,” Doane vowed. “We’re all breaking the law, so we’re just changing it to meet current practices.”
That the law will change appears all but certain. Doane’s bill passed out of the House Transportation Committee by a vote of 13-0 and was scheduled for its first floor vote on Friday afternoon. Furthermore, in a chamber where so many issues prove divisive, this isn’t one of them. Out of 100 total members of the House, all but one of them have signed on as co-sponsors of Doane’s bill.
“I would have had 100 co-sponsors, but Mr. Speaker (Rep. Austin Knudsen) was sick two days in a row,” Doane said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.