GA Considers Another Specialty License Plate

By Shadae Lee Monday, February 01, 2010

RICHMOND – At the suggestion of a Colonial Heights woman, the General Assembly is considering a bill to provide special license plates for people with certain medical conditions.

Delegate M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, is sponsoring House Bill 420. It “authorizes issuance of special license plates to applicants with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, and paralysis. These plates would be subject to a one-time fee of $15.”

Such license plates could be crucial in a traffic accident: They would alert emergency medical personnel and police that the driver might have a condition requiring special attention.

Virginia offers more than 200 specialty license plates. Ordinarily, a minimum number of people must order a type of plate before the state will produce it. However, Cox’s bill says the medical-condition plates “would be exempt from the standard 350 minimum-order requirement.”

HB 420 has been assigned to the House Transportation Committee. Lindsay Fisher, Cox’s legislative assistant, said the costs associated with the measure might make it hard to pass the proposal this year.

“There are new challenges now, particularly with a tight budget,” Fisher said. “This measure may cost close to $30,000 for the development of six different plates.”

Fisher said legislators are scrutinizing the fiscal impact of every bill – knowing they must cut billions in spending to balance the state budget.
“We are looking at alternatives to see which is the best way to go. However, we may not have enough time to get it all done this session,” Fisher said.

Under the legislation, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, in consultation with its Medical Advisory Board, would create six plates “of distinct designs, depending upon the medical condition of the person to whom they are issued.”

Cox represents House District 66, which includes the city of Colonial Heights and part of Chesterfield County. His bill was inspired by Becky Jackson, a Colonial Heights resident and mother of two diabetic children.

Jackson had heard numerous stories of the police misinterpreting people with diabetes or other medical conditions as being under the influence of alcohol. So in 2008, she suggested her license-plates idea to Cox.

“She wanted a way for police officers or EMS who might be responding to an accident to be able automatically identify people with those medical conditions,” Fisher said. “This was a way to protect both police officers and the person who may be in the car.”

On a personal level, Jackson put her idea into action 10 years ago, by placing a marker on the windshield of her son’s car. (Her son is an insulin-dependent diabetic.) The marker notes her son’s medical condition and displays Jackson’s contact information.

HB 420 would apply this concept to many Virginians who suffer from illnesses that might interfere with their ability to respond after a vehicle accident.

“It would be a flag for the officer that maybe this person is not refusing to comply with you … They may have a medical condition that can’t allow them to comply,” Fisher said.

Jackson said such information could be the difference between life and death.
“If this saves one person’s life, then I have won my cause,” she said.