AUGUSTA – Members of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee voted 11-0 on Friday against a bill that would have required businesses hiring commercial truck drivers to verify whether the drivers hold a valid operator’s license.

With just two members absent, the resolve of the committee appeared cohesive, but Democratic Sen. Dennis Damon of Trenton, co-chairman of the panel, said it was possible the lawmakers could reconsider their decision, possibly with an amendment tying it to a federal registry of truckers.

Sponsored by Rep. Walter Ash, D-Belfast, LD 1950 was written as companion legislation to LD 1906, a bill crafted to impose harsher sentences on Mainers who drive with suspended operator’s licenses.

Also known as “Tina’s Law,” LD 1906 was inspired by the death of 40-year-old Tina Turcotte of Scarborough, who was killed last year when a tractor-trailer rig driven by Scott Hewitt, 33, of Caribou slammed into the back of her car on the Maine Turnpike. Hewitt’s driving record included 63 convictions and 23 license suspensions. He was operating under suspension at the time of the most recent accident and has been cited again for driving without a license since Turcotte’s death.

Ash reasoned that if the company officials who hired Hewitt knew about his license status, they never would have employed him to drive on the day his truck rear-ended Turcotte’s car. But during a public hearing on Ash’s bill Tuesday, many of the legislators on the Transportation Committee found what they perceived to be a number of flaws in LD 1950. Criticisms of the bill ranged from an absence of definitions for such key language as “safe driving record” to the failure to include fines for violators who didn’t maintain one. Members of the transportation industry also stressed there was no way to routinely or quickly verify out-of-state truck drivers’ licenses because each state maintains its own record-keeping system.

Damon said Friday that Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham and a member of the committee, had learned that a new federal clearinghouse for maintaining commercial truck driving licenses nationally should be online within a year. Diamond proposed that Maine’s secretary of state be obligated to subscribe to the federal Unified Carriers Registry to provide up-to-date information on any truck driver operating in the state. That registry could then be accessed by police or businesses across the state.

Although it remained unclear Friday whether Diamond’s proposal would emerge as an amendment to LD 1950, as part of a minority report, or as a piece of another transportation omnibus bill, Damon said his committee members liked what they heard about the plan.

“We felt that a lot of the concerns in LD 1950 would be covered by Tina’s Law, but [Diamond’s plan] would also send a strong message about what this committee and the people of Maine think should be done,” Damon said. “I also think it remains true to Rep. Ash’s original intent.”

Ash said Friday that while it’s never pleasant for a legislator to see his bill radically altered, he would support Diamond’s proposed amendment and would still feel he had been able to bring a legitimate issue to the forefront of the Legislature’s attention.

“I offered this bill as a vehicle to achieve a goal, and I would be tickled to death if [Diamond’s plan] could happen,” Ash said.