On Monday, September 24, 2019, the state Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved State Sen. Lisa Boscola ’s bill know as Christine’s Law. The bill is named after Christine Lambert, a motorist killed in 2005 when a 10-inch chunk of ice dislodged from a trash truck and struck the vehicle she was driving causing her death. Boscola has been trying for years to get the bill passed. The bill now goes to the Senate for a final vote, and would then go to the House of Representatives.
Under current Pennsylvania law, police can not pull a driver over for driving a vehicle caked with ice and snow. Drivers can only be cited after snow and ice dislodge from a moving vehicle and strikes a person or vehicle, causing death or injury.
The new law would be proactive and allow police to pull over vehicles that are dangerously caked with snow and ice. Violators could face a fine of $75.00.
Drivers would have 24 hours after a snowstorm ends to clear their vehicles of accumulated ice and snow. After that, the police could pull over drivers and cited if they failed to clear their vehicles of accumulated ice and snow.
According to Boscola, the trucking industry fought passage of the bill, but has worked with her and fellow lawmakers recently to reshape it.
Published by Jorge Pereira, Esq.
I was born in Portugal and raised in Bethlehem after immigrating with his family to the Lehigh Valley at the age of 2.
I attended Rutgers University, New Brunswick graduating with B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Psychology. After graduating with honors from Rutgers University, I attended Rutgers-Newark Law School. While at Rutgers-Newark Law School, I was part of Appellate Moot Court, Urban Legal Clinic and the Animal Rights Clinic.
Upon graduating Rutgers-Newark Law School Law, I initially practiced at a small boutique law firm in Newark, New Jersey but always maintained a desire to return to his home in the Lehigh Valley. I spent the last eighteen years working in civil litigation and personal injury law firms in the Lehigh Valley. For the last sixteen years, I has worked at an Allentown law firm, The Law of Business, P.C. f/k/a Douglas M. Marinos & Associates, P.C. focusing on business divorce, corporate law, creditor’s rights and general civil litigation.
I am a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bars and admitted to practice in the United States District Court of Pennsylvania for the Eastern District and the United States District Court of New Jersey. I have litigated cases throughout the Courts of Common Pleas of Eastern Pennsylvania from Susquehanna County to Philadelphia County and represented both debtors and creditors in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern and Middle District of Pennsylvania. As counsel for Sovereign Bank, I wrote the appellate brief in the precedent setting decision in the matter of Sovereign Bank v. Schwab, 414 F.3d 450 (3rd Cir. 2005).
I am an avid cigar smoker and a founding member, board member and former officer of the Lehigh Valley Cigar Club, a non-profit social club with over 200 members dedicated to protecting and promoting the enjoyment of cigar smoking in the Lehigh Valley.I played Rugby for ten years on the men’s team of the Lehigh Valley Rugby Football Club, becoming a captain of the men’s team, and President of the club. I own a commercial building in the historical district of Main Street, Bethlehem where my business partner and I own a hair salon, Hair Studio Main.
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