AUGUSTA — The Maine House and Senate voted Monday to override Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill that would create a task force to examine ways to improve the safety of hayrides and other unregulated farm rides.

As originally written, the bill would have given the State Fire Marshal’s Office the authority to license and inspect hayrides and other “amusement devices” not currently regulated. The bill, L.D. 1057, was a response to an incident last October in which a Jeep that was hauling a hayride trailer in Mechanic Falls careened down a hill and into trees, injuring 22 people and killing one teenager.

The bill was watered down during the committee process to direct the state fire marshal and the chief of the Maine State Police to convene a group “to review methods of ensuring the safety of the public on motorized hayrides, pumpkin rides and other farm rides that are offered for a fee to the public on farms and rural land.”

The bill was among 21 that LePage vetoed last Friday, some for policy reasons and some because they were sponsored by Democrats.

“If this bill becomes law, resources that could be used to address the most pressing public safety concerns facing our state will instead be used to address a public safety concern that is plainly not as serious as the issue of illegal drugs destroying the lives of thousands of Maine citizens,” the Republican governor wrote in his veto letter to lawmakers on the hayride bill.

The House voted 146-0 and the Senate voted 29-6 to override LePage’s veto.

The House overturned three dozen gubernatorial vetoes – including a bill to allow summer camps and day care facilities to be prescribed and administer the drug epinephrine, which counteracts allergic reactions – and sustained 10 as of Monday night. The Senate voted to override at least four vetoes and allowed at least one to stand before adjourning earlier in the day, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

 

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