On a day when steadily falling snow piled up by the foot and caused traffic delays throughout the state, lawmakers green-lighted a bill aimed at requiring passenger vehicles to carry proper traction equipment in icy and snowy conditions along the steep and winding 126-mile stretch of Interstate 70 between Dostero and Morrison.

House Bill 1039, a retread from last year sponsored by Reps. Diane Mitsch Bush, D-Steamboat, and Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, passed in the House by a 46-to-18 vote Tuesday. Mitsch Bush said last year’s effort, which died in the Senate, failed in part because she had assumed the problem it seeks to address was well understood.

This year, the sponsors focused their arguments on the economic and safety benefits they say the bill would bring.

“Our witnesses came from virtually every business group you could think of, ranging from the Denver Metro Chamber to the Colorado Competitive Council to the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association,” Mitsch Bush told The Colorado Statesman. “We had a wide variety of groups testify but in addition, this time around, we brought in law enforcement and first responders. Last time, and this is a mea culpa, I thought everyone understood the public safety issue. Apparently last year that wasn’t made clear enough.”

During debate in 2015, many asked why the bill was necessary, given that there is already a Colorado traction law on the books. But the bill seeks to better prevent slides and crashes by requiring drivers to carry proper traction equipment whenever snow-packed and icy conditions exist, not only when the Colorado Department of Transportation issues a Code 15 winter driving conditions warning. The bill seeks to eliminate the delay between the time it takes to issue, receive and act on a warning that can lead to accidents.

Some lawmakers last year also worried the bill would create intrusive traffic-delaying tire checkpoints along I-70, something Mitsch Bush said was a mischaracterization. The bill explicitly states that it established no checkpoints.

Rankin said he is sympathetic to fears of overregulation, but he said the bill addresses a real need in the state that isn’t being addressed by current law. He pointed to a similar law that passed in 2009 that applied to commercial trucks along the I-70 corridor.

“There is a strong feeling for limiting government on my side of the aisle, and I respect that. But in this case it’s totally justified to extend the law having to do with being prepared to drive on I-70, and we know from data it made a big difference for the trucking industry when it was passed (in 2009),” he told The Statesman. “When you listen to all the people that testified, they’re the experts. They use and depend on the highway. I have a difficult time understanding why we don’t listen to experts and the people who depend on I-70 in wintertime.”

The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Kerry Donovan, D-Vail.

— ramsey@coloradostatesman.com