AUGUSTA — The national group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety has awarded Rep. Paulette Beaudoin, D-Biddeford, with the Highway Safety Hero Award for her work to improve road safety in Maine.
Beaudoin, first elected to the Maine House in 2006, has sponsored several bills to improve safety and decrease the number of accidents on Maine’s roads, according to her staff.
Early in her career, Beaudoin submitted bills banning the use of hand-held cellphones in cars. While those bills did not become law, they advanced the debate over how Maine should respond to increasingly distracted drivers, according to Beaudoin.
In 2011, Beaudoin helped in the Legislature’s effort to successfully ban texting while driving.
Beaudoin has also been the primary sponsor of several bills requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets. Her attempts, so far, have been unsuccessful, but the term-limited Beaudoin is actively recruiting returning lawmakers to reintroduce the measure next year.
Beaudoin is serving her fourth term in the Maine House and represents part of Biddeford.
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