ANDALUSIA – A powerful member of the Alabama Legislature, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Lowell Barron, is accused of reckless driving after being pulled over in south Alabama last week.

The lawmaker from Fyffe has a court date in Covington County on Sept. 16 to respond to tickets for reckless driving and running a stop sign on July 27.

Barron said Monday he was driving fast because he was trying to get away from a motorcycle that had been tailing his car for more than 30 miles.

Barron said he tried to wave off the motorcycle and tapped his brakes, to no avail.

Each time he sped up, the motorcycle would speed up and stay on his bumper. Barron said he considered the rider’s behavior to be threatening.

“I was very concerned about my safety,” he said.

Barron said the motorcycle driver turned out to be a former law enforcement officer who was in plain clothes.

Andalusia Police Chief Wilbur Williams said Barron was driving almost 100 mph, and there were people who witnessed his driving.

In 1996, Barron got the Legislature to pass a law that banned police in towns with fewer than 19,000 people from ticketing speeders on interstate highways. Barron had been clocked, but not ticketed, by the Clanton and Argo police departments for driving more than 90 mph while commuting on interstate highways between his northeast Alabama district and the capital.