Status as of Sept. 26, 2026: On Wednesday, Sept. 23, the House Judiciary Committee voted HB 4334 out of committee. The vote was unanimous. HB 4334 has not yet had a vote on the House floor. SB 217, which the Senate passed in 2025, is tied to it. HB 4334 cannot take effect unless SB 217 also becomes law.
Why We Support These Bills
LMB supports the Justice for Vulnerable Roadway Users (VRU) bills. They protect people who walk, bike, ride horses, and use wheelchairs. These road users face traffic without the protection of a steel frame, just like road workers and farmers on tractors.
Michigan law has a gap. When a driver injures or kills someone on a bike, the available charges are often too minor or too severe to fit the crime. These bipartisan bills close that gap and give prosecutors appropriate options. Many Michigan drivers who kill a bicyclist are charged only with a misdemeanor, “Moving Violation Causing Death.” As former LMB board member Bryan Waldman wrote in 2017, “given the current state of Michigan law, when a motorist injures or kills a bicyclist, the prosecutor is left with an almost impossible decision regarding the appropriate charge for the crime and it is damn near impossible to obtain a meaningful conviction.”
What the Bills Do
HB 4334 (Rep. Julie Rogers) creates three penalties for a driver who commits a moving violation that harms a vulnerable roadway user:
● Injury: a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 1 year of imprisonment, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.
● Serious injury (requiring inpatient treatment at a hospital or rehab facility): a felony, punishable by up to 5 years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.
● Death: a felony, punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $7,500, or both.
Michigan already treats a moving violation that kills the operator of farm equipment (an “implement of husbandry”) as a felony. HB 4334 gives people on bikes, on foot, on horseback, and in wheelchairs similar protection.
SB 217 (Sen. Thomas Albert) adds the new felonies to Michigan’s sentencing guidelines. The two bills are tied together, or “tie-barred.” HB 4334 does not take effect unless SB 217 is also enacted. HB 4334 takes effect 90 days after it becomes law.
Who counts as a vulnerable roadway user? Under HB 4334, it is:
● A pedestrian
● A person using roller skates, inline skates, a nonmotorized scooter, a nonmotorized skateboard, or a wheelchair
● A person riding a horse or other equine, or riding in an equine-drawn carriage
● A person using a bicycle, electric bicycle, electric skateboard, or electric personal assistive mobility device, up to 750 watts and 30 mph
● A postal worker on a rural mail route
How We Got Here
LMB has worked on this legislation for six years.
● 2023 to 2024: Sen. McCann, Sen. Klinefelt, Rep. Rogers, and Rep. Schuette introduced the first version in Oct. 2023 (SB 617, SB 618, HB 5223, and HB 5224). The bills cleared committees in 2024 with strong bipartisan votes. But the session ended in Nov. 2024 before they reached a final vote.
● April 2025: The bills were reintroduced as HB 4334 and SB 217. They keep the same intent and protections and fix differences between the earlier Senate and House versions.
● June 24, 2025: The Senate passed SB 217 by a vote of 30 to 6.
● Sept. 23, 2026: The House Judiciary Committee voted HB 4334 out of committee. SB 217 took the place of HB 4335 in the package, so the package is now HB 4334 and SB 217.
Next step: a vote by the full House.
Why It Matters
Michigan’s final 2025 crash data shows that bicyclist deaths rose 21 percent, from 29 to 35. Pedestrian deaths rose 18 percent. Read more in The Latest Crash Data and the Work Ahead.
Michigan already has increased penalties for drivers who hit and kill road workers or police officers. These bills follow the same principle. Everyone deserves the choice to bike or walk safely.
At least 12 states have vulnerable road user laws, according to the League of American Bicyclists. These laws create enhanced penalties for drivers who injure or kill a person who is not protected by a motor vehicle.
What You Can Do
Ask your state representative to vote yes on HB 4334 when it reaches the House floor.
NOTES
According to the League of American Bicyclists (model vulnerable user law page, last updated Aug. 2023), these 12 states have VRU laws: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
—
Photo CC-BY Rory Finneren, 2011. “Ghost Bike we set up for my father, Ralph Finneren. It’s located on Giddings Rd. directly outside of the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township, Michigan, very near where the crash occurred.” This was one of the first ghost bikes in the state of Michigan, a public memorial marking the site of a fatal crash.