New PA Laws For 2023: Unpaid Toll Penalties, Switchblades Legal, More

HARRISBURG, PA — The new year brings it with a slew of new legal realities for Pennsylvanians, as dozens of bills and measures signed and agreed upon over the past year were triggered into effect on the first day of 2023.

Some are largely inconsequential, some are just weird, and many are both weird and important to know as the calendar flips to the new year.

Below is a rundown of some of the more notable laws on the books in the Keystone State, starting this year.

Turnpike Commission to now punish via vehicle registration

House Bill 1486 will drastically cut the threshold for vehicle registration suspensions following unpaid tolls and fees, from $500 to just $250.

Officials hope the measure will help the Pennsylvania Turnpike recoup some of its massive losses. The Turnpike lost $104 million in uncollected tolls from June 2020 to May 2021. Millions of motorists without E-ZPass never paid tolls through the state's license plate camera system — a gap that was only made public after The Associated Press filed a Right to Know request and obtained an internal Turnpike report in September.

The Turnpike says that so far, they've collected $11.4 million in tolls and fees by suspending more than 23,000 vehicle registrations through a partnership with PennDOT. The new legislation comes even after the Turnpike says they are planning to increase tolls by another 5 percent in 2023, as historic inflation rates and a looming recession impact average Pennsylvanians across the board.

Text of the full bill.

Fentanyl test strips

Another major piece of legislation in 2022 was House Bill 1393, which legalizes fentanyl test strips to prevent overdose deaths.

Strips allow drug users to test substances for dangerous elements, like fentanyl. The law legalizes the strips “for personal use in determining whether a controlled substance contains chemicals, toxic substances or hazardous compounds in quantities which can cause physical harm or death," according to the text of the bill, introduced by Republican State Rep. James Struzzi of Indiana County.

Overdose prevention advocates called the move "encouraging" and also praised the bipartisan cooperation needed to get the bill passed into law.

"The Wolf administration has made harm reduction a priority," Tracy Pugh, states director of the Overdose Prevention Program at Vital Strategies, said in a statement. "The unanimous support for fentanyl test strips in the legislature is a welcome sign of the growing momentum in support of harm reduction as a tool to address the overdose epidemic."

Text of the full bill.

Switchblades legalized

Knife enthusiasts in the Keystone State have won out. Switchblades are now legal in Pennsylvania thanks to House Bill 1929.

"Public misconception of automatic knives as used predominately by criminals in the 1950s led many states such as Pennsylvania to enact legislation to restrict even merely possessing them," State Rep. Martin T. Causer wrote in a co-sponsorship memorandum. "Recently, twenty-three states have repealed or revised laws regarding the sale and possession of automatic knives paving the way for their use in constructive daily work and recreational activities."

The ban on automatic knives had been in place since April 1956, according to the American Knife and Tool Institute.

Full text of the bill.

Regulating self-driving vehicles and safeguarding workers

Autonomous vehicles are developing at a "rapid pace," officials say, and the nature of the automobile economy is expected to remain in flux into the future. House Bill 2398 contains provisions to protect workers from a changing industry, and to regulate the vehicles to ensure their benefits can be realized as they enter into everyday life.

"While this technology is being developed and eventually utilized throughout the Commonwealth, I encourage the General Assembly to ensure that Pennsylvania workers are supported in the event that highly automated vehicles cause disruption to the current and evolving workforce," Gov. Tom Wolf said in a letter to lawmakers in November.

Lawmakers who introduced the bill pointed both to the state's large automonous vehicle workforce, and to existing supply chain issues related to a shortage in CDL drivers, as reasons to help support the industry.

"We need creative and innovative ideas like autonomous vehicles to help take the pressure off the supply chain and help deliver food, medicine, and building supplies across the United States," a group of legislators wrote in a co-sponsorship memorandum. "Autonomous vehicles can help but only if they are allowed to operate in states like Pennsylvania with a vast and key transportation network."

Pennsylvania is one of 17 states to enact similar legislation.

Text of the full bill.

Notifying citizens of sensitive data breaches

Pennsylvania will now require both “health insurance information” and “medical information” to trigger notifications to citizens when a potential data breach occurs.

The change comes through Senate Bill 696, and also applies to any breach that contains "username or email address in combination with password or security question and answer that would permit access to an online account."

"It also requires the Attorney General be made aware of the breach, and for Executive Branch Agencies to notify the Office of Administration within 3 days following the breach," State Sen. Daniel Laughlin, who introduced the bill, said in a statement. "The legislation will also require the Office of Administration to keep a policy for the storage and transmission of Personal identifiable Information Data."

Data breaches have become an increasingly common plague in the lives of Pennsylvanians and Americans across the nation. Wawa recently reached an $8 million settlement after a 2019 incident breached the data of millions of payment cards across all Wawa's locations.

Text of the full bill.

Expanding the state's junior firefighting force

A new law will allow 17-year-old junior firefighters to complete their final training step, an effort to expand the state's firefighting force.

House Bill 2268 changes the existing law, which did not allow firefighters to complete their final certification, the Interior Firefighting Module with Live Burns training program, until they were 18.

"Volunteer Fire Departments across the Commonwealth are struggling to recruit and retain Junior Firefighters," bill creator State Rep. Torren C. Ecker wrote in a co-sponsorship memorandum.

Both a parent of the junior firefighter, as well as that department's fire chief, would need to give permission to allow the training to be held.

Text of the full bill.