A pre-filed bill for the 2021 Kentucky general legislative session would classify unsafe amounts of mowed grasses left on a highway as criminal littering.
State Senator Danny Carroll of Paducah, a Republican, is pre-filing the bill “relating to road safety” after pre-filing a similar bill last year. Carroll did not respond to questions from WKMS News about this year’s pre-filed bill. Another western Kentucky state senator has filed similar legislation in the past after hearing anecdotal stories of roadway injuries due to grass clippings, particularly for motorcycles.
“Unsafe” amounts of mowed grass on a highway is defined in the bill as creating a “substantial risk of serious physical injury or death to any person or damage to the person's property.”
Criminal littering is currently defined to include throwing litter on public and private property without permission and throwing glass or “dangerous pointed or edged substances”on or within fifty feet of a public highway.
Those guilty would face a violation and a fine no greater than $200 dollars for the first offense and a misdemeanor for subsequent offenses.
