This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Until my colleague Lee Davidson wrote about it during his coverage of the Utah Legislature, I didn't realize how many of our state laws were outdated.

This is good news because Lee specifically mentions just two of them, whereas I always thought the exact number was more like most of them.

According to Lee, Rep. Lee Perry, R-Perry — yeah, that's a tough line to get through — is attempting to strike from the books a particularly useless law, one that requires motorists to honk before rounding sharp curves.

This law was presumably enacted back during a time when motorists were something of a novelty and forced to share the road with buggies, horses, cows, swine herds, the odd moose and fractious, rock-throwing pedestrians.

I didn't bother to look up this law in the Utah Traffic Code, so it's entirely possible that "sharp curves" refers not only to hairpin curves, but also 90-degree turns.

Depending on which route I take (and the music I'm listening to), there are between nine and 31 90-degree (or sharper) turns from my house to the office downtown.

That's a lot of distracting honking just to abide by the law, especially if a motorist is also texting, eating and/or looking for his missing Bob Seger CD that some #%$@* apparently borrowed without permission.

The Honk if You Love Turning law is still on the books.

It might not be if Rep. Perry gets his way, but until then you should probably honk when rounding a curve just to be on the safe side.

There's another law on the books that is of far more concern to me personally. This one I did look up. Here it is:

76-6-105. Causing a catastrophe.

(1) Any person who by explosion, fire, flood, avalanche, collapse of a building, release of poison gas, radioactive material, or other harmful or destructive force or substance, or by any other means, causes a widespread injury or damage to persons or property is guilty of causing a catastrophe.

Doing any of that is a second-degree felony.

It was made worse in 1990 when 32A-12-207 made it illegal to sell or furnish alcohol in an area declared by the governor to be in a state of emergency.

Not only is it illegal to accidentally cause a catastrophe while having a bit of fun, you can't even try to make it better by letting people have a few drinks to calm their nerves.

This is just confusing to the public. Most intelligent people understand that the first sensible step in coping with a smoking hole where your house used to be is having a few drinks.

If this proves nothing else (and it doesn't), it clearly demonstrates that we need to keep an eye on our state legislators.

To keep abreast of these nonsense laws, just search the Internet for "stupid Utah laws." You'll be surprised (or not) by how many there are. Don't do it if you're the kind of person who holds a grudge.

I searched and found out that it was illegal to have sex in the back of an ambulance during an emergency run.

Apparently it didn't used to be.

Damn, I've been hauled away in an ambulance half a dozen times at least and never knew that such treatment was even available.

Robert Kirby can be reached at rkirby@sltrib.com or facebook.com/stillnotpatbagley. Find his past columns at http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/kirby/