SESSION OF 2020
SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE ON SENATE BILL NO. 267
As Amended by Senate Committee on
Transportation

Brief*
SB 267, as amended, would amend law on securing
loads on vehicles to create an exemption for trucks, trailers,
or semitrailers when hauling agricultural forage commodities
intrastate from the place of production to a market or place of
storage. The bill would state this exemption would not apply
to trucks, trailers, or semitrailers hauling hay bales or other
packaged or bundled forage commodities. Continuing law
requires securing a load on a vehicle so as to prevent any of
this load from dropping, sifting, leaking, or otherwise
escaping.

Background
The bill was introduced by Senator Doll. As introduced,
the bill would have specified violation of load securement law
(KSA 2019 Supp. 8-2116) would be a traffic infraction. Under
current law, a first violation of the load securement law is a
class C misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine of not
more than $500 (KSA 2019 Supp. 8-2116 and 25-6611).
In the Senate Committee on Transportation hearing,
Senator Doll testified as a proponent. He discussed the
difficulties of completely securing a load of newly cut and
chopped plant material to be used for silage and asked that a
violation of load securement law for that particular use be a
traffic infraction, not a misdemeanor. Written-only proponent
testimony was received from representatives of Kansas Farm
____________________
*Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research
Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental
note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at
http://www.kslegislature.org
Bureau and the Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association,
the Kansas Grain and Feed Association, and the Renew
Kansas Biofuels Association.
The Director of Policy, Kansas Department of
Transportation (KDOT), testified as an opponent, and written-
only opponent testimony was provided by the Colonel of the
Kansas Highway Patrol. Both cited concerns about safety and
the lack of a specified fine in the bill.
Neutral testimony was provided by representatives of
the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) and the League of
Kansas Municipalities. The KLA representative suggested the
bill be amended to exclude certain commodities from load
securement law.
The Senate Committee amended the bill to strike the
original amendments and to add an exception in load
securement law for agricultural forage commodities under
certain circumstances.
According to the fiscal note prepared by the Division of
the Budget on the bill as introduced, KDOT indicated
enactment of the bill would have a negligible fiscal effect on
the receipts received by the Traffic Records Enhancement
Fund and the Seat Belt Safety Fund. The fiscal note states
the League of Kansas Municipalities could not estimate what,
if any, fiscal effect enactment of the bill would have on
Kansas cities. Any fiscal effect associated with enactment of
the bill is not reflected in The FY 2021 Governor’s Budget
Report.


2- 267


Statutes affected:
As introduced: 8-2116
As Amended by Senate Committee: 8-1906, 8-2116