House Bill 1033 Weather radios in manufactured homes. Rep. Hoy:
Requires that a manufactured home that is installed in a mobile home community be equipped with a weather radio. Provides that a mobile home operator is encouraged to provide a written reminder to the manufactured home owners in the mobile home community to replace batteries in a weather radio or smoke detector contained in the manufactured home.
I’ve already said I think this bill is a little silly. I think ordinary radios ought to be sufficient to warn someone of severe weather, and if residents choose not to equip themselves with a radio, well, you take your chances, and life is full of choices and danger. Others have offered cogent disagreement.
But, much as I have a problem with the policy being advanced here, it pales in comparison to the trouble I have with the legislature inserting this crap into the Indiana Code:
IC 16-41-27-16.6 – Each year during National Fire Prevention Week, the operator of a mobile home community is encouraged to provide a written reminder to the owners of all manufactured homes in the mobile home community to replace the batteries in all weather radios contained in their manufactured homes.
This isn’t a press release. This isn’t a resolution. You don’t use the Indiana Code to “encourage” people to do things. This is a code of laws. You use laws to restrict behavior that is otherwise permitted, permit behavior that is otherwise restricted, and to compel particular actions. Sometimes you use one or a combination of those uses to induce particular behavior (see the tax code), but a statement saying “Gee, it’d be nice if you did x, y, or z” is out of place in a Code of Laws.
The Indiana Code is, in my humble opinion, one of the best codes in the country. (If you want a look at something just god awful in terms of articulation and organization, take a look at the United States Code). We should keep our code in good shape by leaving mere editorial comments out of it.
[tags]HB1033-2007, public safety[/tags]
I thought laws had to have a penalty with them, or they were not a law. For example, you couldn’t make not wearing a seatbelt a crime unless there was SOME penalty ($0.25 fine) that went with it.
This was the only law class I took, and they went over it in the first week. Am I missing something?
Well intentioned as these 2 bills may be, would someone please explain to lawmakers that it isn’t necessary to draft legislation just for the hell of it?
Do these folks have nothing else to do?
Sheesh…
Hey Doug, just out of curiosity (since this is your field of expertise so to speak)just how many laws does Indiana have on the books? If these legislators add a few per session, we must have a few thousand on the books, no?
I wouldn’t know how to count that. You have at least two potential ways of counting, though — bills passed into law (maybe not very helpful since one bill can do as little as amend one section of the Indiana Code, while another can amend hundreds of sections); or you could look at how many Code sections there are. There are 33 Titles to the Indiana Code, each of which is divided up into Articles, Chapters, and Sections (and subsections, subdivisions, clauses, and items — if memory serves).
But, yeah, the bills accumulate into more regulation. Some of this is attributable to an increasingly complex world. But, I think it’s also fair to say that some of it is attributable to legislators going into the General Assembly every year and feeling that they have to Do Something.
Doug,
I read this quote from you and couldn’t agree more with your statement.
“I think ordinary radios ought to be sufficient to warn someone of severe weather,and if residents CHOOSE not to equip themselves with a radio,well,YOU TAKE YOUR CHANCES,AND LIFE IS FULL OF CHOICES AND DANGER.”
Please explain why you feel it should be a choice whether or not to purchase a weather radio for self protection but I belive and correct me if I am wrong you feel it is fine for the state to mandate I wear a seatbelt in my truck which again is just a choice of self protection??
On a side not I believe weather radios are better than regular radios in that if you are sleeping and you have the weather radio set on high volume it goes off really loud and will wake you up in the event of severe weather approaching which was the case in Evansville a few years back.The tornado struck in the middle of the night which is when most fatalities happen with tornados.
We have a midland weather radio in our home.I do agree with you that this should be a matter of choice though and the last thing we need is another law.It is up to the individual to choose or not choose to protect one’s self not the state.
I have stated on hear many times where do we draw a line with these laws the state keeps passing to protect me.
No cell phones while driving,no eating while driving or putting on makeup,no smoking in the car if a minor is present(I am a non smoker),fast food bans,outlawing certain types of trans fats that food is fried in like the law in New York and now attached to the seatbelt bill no riding in the back of pickup trucks. That will go over well down in this rural are like a lead balloon.
Some of my fondest memories of childhood was riding in the back of a pickup with my brothers and sister with our parents driving us down the country road to go fishing or camping.
When will they pass a law that says you must wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle if you are over 18 which is far more dangerous than not wearing a seatbelt.In my youth I owned a few motorcyles I always wore a helmet on long hwy trips because the face shield would protect against bugs and debris in the eyes but I never wore one cruising around town which was stupid but agin my choice that effected myself and no one else.
I’ll take care of myself and worry about my safety and the state can worry about property taxes,privatizing the lottery,toll roads and selling off whatever assets Governor Mitch thinks he can make a buck on but leave me alone.I’ll choose what I think is safe for me to do or not do and as long as it’s not hurting anyone else it’s none of the state’s business!!
Getting back to the “reason” for the legislation, an ordinary radio is not going to wake you up in the middle of the night with weather warnings. You need a special weather or all-hazards radio that is equipped with an alarm that is tied to the NWS warning system to do that. Not all weather radios are equipped to sound an alarm, either. Outdoor sirens, if your community has them, are also not designed to wake you up nor even to necessarily be heard while you are indoors and awake. Outdoor alarms are made to be heard people who are outdoors when storms strike.
Having said all that, I don’t think that this legislation would do much in terms of preventing tornado deaths. Also, I don’t believe that do-it-yourself protection is *always* reasonable or possible. Yes, we all should be vigilant, but I have compassion for people who are victims of tornadoes, especially when they occur in the middle of the night.
The National Weather Service and The Storm Prediction Center exist for a reason–to do a complex job that ordinary citizens are not typically capable of doing. The Evansville tornado is probably the reason that this legislation was introduced. Two things happened (or rather didn’t happen) that night that are possibly contributed to the death toll.
1. From what I can tell, the Storm Prediction Center did not issue a tornado *watch* until after the Evansville tornado had struck. Who knows what might have happened had people been aware that tornadoes were possible before they went to bed that night?
2. From reports I read a few days after the tornado, the alarm system that might have warned people with the special weather radios wasn’t working that night. This was not widely reported, to my knowledge. Even people who had those special radios and figured out how to set them properly (not an easy task) would not have received warning.
If there is going to be legislation to protect people in mobile home parks, I’d rather that it require underground shelters. Mobile home park owners don’t want that, but it would be better protection than mobile homes provide, and might actually reduce tornado deaths.
We have sirens in our community but they would not wake you up in the middle of the night which is when the Evansville tornado struck.Our Midland weather radio will wake you up.I believe the above statements 1. and 2. are correct the best I can remember.
It might make more sense to mandate the installation of alert sirens at trailer parks, and wire them into the NWS somehow. That A) doesn’t compel the installation of devices, easily stolen or damaged, into each trailer home; and B) serves the community near the trailer park as well, not just the park itself.
I acknowledge that this doesn’t address Pila’s circumstances 1) and 2) above — but when the official weather-spotting and alert agencies fail, there’s not a lot that can be done.
Hey, here’s an idea for the privatizers — we could have multiple competing weather spotting and alert services. It’s what Murray Rothbard would recommend. :)
Good law. What does it hurt? The cost is passed along to those who purchase mobile homes, so Richy Riches can’t complain about giving more money to poor people.
liability is limited.
it gives people more time and another tool to prepare for disaster.
I’ve responded to 2 tornado related disasters. It’s much better to walk down the street and see a family looking at what’s left of their house than see a damaged home the family failed to come out of.
Branden: In re: multiple competing weather services–hush your mouth!! (Just kidding.) Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum tried to blame the NWS for not giving sufficient warnings about the potential devastation of Hurrican Katrina. The reality was that the NWS put out an eerily accurate statement prior to Katrina’s second landfall. Accuweather, a Santorum contributor, was (and still is) upset that the NWS offers specialized forecasts for free. Accuweather and other private weather forecasting services charge their customers for the same information.
Phillip: I’d like to have one of the special alarm radios, but have not gotten around to buying one. The sirens here have woken me up on several occasions, including the wee hours of November 6, 2005–the night of the Evansville tornado. Even without the sirens, I almost always wake up when storms roll through overnight.
Doug: I do agree that laws made in reaction to particular situations, especially tragic ones, tend to be bad laws. I’m not sure if this legislation would really increase safety or decrease tornado death tolls. The Evansville tornado had the highest single-tornado death toll this decade, IIRC. A century ago, a similar tornado going through a shanty-town type area could have resulted in five or ten times more deaths. Though I’m still troubled that no tornado *watch* was issued before the Evansville event, the warning systems and technology we take for granted have significantly reduced tornado deaths over the years. Vulnerable populations, such as people who live in mobile homes, need someplace to go in the event of tornadoes. All the warnings in the world are no help if the only defense you have is being inside a mobile home.