Senate corrects grammar in S.309 and approves motor‑vehicle language on amber lights and 'masking'

The Senate adopted an amendment to S.309 to correct grammatical usage involving countable items and then passed the bill on third reading.

The amendment, offered from the floor by the senator from Addison, replaces instances of "less than" with "not fewer than" for enumerated, countable items such as required fire extinguishers on motorboats. The sponsor said the change is to ensure clarity in the statute: "when there are items that you can count, like fire extinguishers, you use not fewer than a number," adding the correction was verified by legislative counsel. Colleagues supported the technical fix; one senator noted the original phrasing had been copied from federal statute language.

On third reading, the senator from Chittenden Southeast outlined substantive clarifications in the bill related to vehicle lighting and driver licensing. She said drivers are not required to pull over for a vehicle displaying an amber (yellow) light, but should give space when an amber light is displayed on a stopped vehicle. She summarized that the bill explicitly prohibits flashing lights of colors other than amber and all blue lights. She also discussed the bill's use of "masking" language in the context of commercial driver's license (CDL) holders: citing the Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR), she said the bill is intended to prevent diversion programs or other processes from "masking" convictions that would otherwise appear on a CDL holder’s driving record, which is used to assess the seriousness of a driver's pattern of traffic violations.

After the floor discussion and voice votes on the amendment and the bill, the presiding officer announced, "the ayes have it," and S.309 was passed.

The changes were presented as technical or clarifying; no recorded roll‑call tally was provided on the floor transcript.