Bill would take the boom out of auto boom boxes

Erin Neff

Tuesday, April 3, 2001 | 9:41 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An Assembly committee on Monday passed a measure that would make it illegal to blare music from a motor vehicle if it can be heard 25 feet away.

Assembly Bill 481, sponsored by Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, does not include sounds emitted from emergency vehicles or from vehicles with a permit to enter a parade or procession.

"One of the biggest concerns that has been brought to me ... is the noise that emanates from motor vehicles in the manner of amplifiers, or in other words, boom boxes," Chowning told the Assembly Judiciary Committee Monday.

Chowning said she determined 25 feet should be used as the distance marker to remedy different distances already on the books in local jurisdictions. For example, the city of Las Vegas has an ordinance prohibiting noise from traveling 50 feet from a motor vehicle. Clark County's ordinance sets the distance at 75 feet.

Assemblyman Don Gustavson, R-Sun Valley, agreed that loud music is both a nuisance and a potential safety hazard, but he wondered how the measure could be enforced.

"It just gives our police the tool," Chowning said.

Gustavson also questioned why current disturbing-the-peace ordinances could not be applied to loud music.

Several residents testified that booming bass sounds disrupt the quietude of their neighborhoods and make it impossible to enjoy their homes.

Ben Blinn of Reno urged the committee to approve the bill to limit what he called "ghetto blasters."

No one spoke in opposition.

Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, offered an amendment to exempt ice cream trucks from the ordinance. The panel then unanimously voted to pass the bill out of committee with that amendment. The bill now goes to the full Assembly.

In other action Monday, the committee passed two bills on to the Assembly:

* Assembly Bill 396, sponsored by David Brown, R-Henderson, makes the statement of a child describing physical abuse admissible in criminal proceedings.

Prosecutors testified they are not always able to introduce the statement of a child younger than 10 who later tells a health care provider of abuse suffered at home. In one case a 4-year-old boy was so frightened to discuss the abuse, he did not disclose the person responsible until he had been removed from the home and felt safe.

* Assembly Bill 470, sponsored by David Humke, R-Reno, would create a juvenile crime reduction fund. The fund would be used to prevent delinquency, rehabilitate youthful offenders and provide alternative placement for offenders outside of the prison system.

Although the Judiciary Committee approved the measure, it faces an uncertain future in Assembly Ways and Means. That committee will consider whether to approve the $1.5 million appropriation requested to start the fund.