On this special episode of the Rodeo Labs Podcast, we sat down with Jacqueline Claudia and Michael White of the White Line Foundation to discuss how the organization has been championing key policy on the federal and state levels. Claudia is the Executive Director of the White Line, while White is the co-founder and the father of Magnus White, whose death in Boulder County in 2023 was the catalyst for the organization.

In our conversation with Claudia and White, we focused on the major policy goals the White Line has been pushing at the federal and local levels that could have clear positive safety outcomes. HR 7353 is the proposed bill that the White Line has sponsored which amends existing federal regulations on Automatic Emergency Braking systems to mandate that all new vehicles have the capacity to detect vulnerable road users by September 2029. While this is a specific policy goal, it is the key culmination of a long, tragic process that began in August 2023 after a driver in Boulder County killed Magnus White. This policy would have prevented that fatal crash and has the capacity to alter the outcome of many future parallel path crashes.

Additionally, the organization is advocating for a law in the Colorado state legislature, known as SB26-132, or Magnus’ Law, which requires law enforcement to conduct an impairment test at every fatal or serious injury crash in the state. That state bill was introduced on Friday, February 27. That bill will be heard in the Colorado State Senate Judiciary Committee on March 9th, where the next steps of the bill will be decided. The key time crunch is getting the bill through the state senate by mid-May. If it succeeds, it could be implemented in August of this year.

If you are interested in engaging with the letter-writing tool that we discussed in the podcast, you can visit it here.

If you want to learn more about the White Line or stay informed about what the organization will do next, you can follow along on their Instagram, here.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guests: Jacqueline Claudia and Michael White

Editor and producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.