Bill allowing pregnant drivers to use HOV lane fails in committee

SALT LAKE CITY — Pregnant drivers won’t be allowed in the HOV lane after a bill to make it so failed in a Senate committee Monday.

Three senators voted against H.B. 256, even though it passed 49 to 23 in the House earlier this month.

Sen. Jacob Anderegg, R-Lehi, and Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, both Republicans, voted for the bill to advance out of committee

It really bogged down to some of the legal issues that could come up, should the bill pass.

With this, one of the three senators who voted to kill the bill in the committee said that, while he’s pro-life, it’s troubling to ask state highway troopers to enforce this kind of thing. Along with this, he said it could put Utah’s federal funding for highways at risk.

UDOT says the guidance from the federal highway administration does not consider a fetus an occupant.

Devin Oldroyd contributed to this story.

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