AUGUSTA — The sponsor of a bill that would make fatigued driving a crime in Maine said she was ready to amend her bill so it applies only to drivers in fatal crashes, after she heard suggestions from lawmakers Monday when introducing the bill.

Republican Rep. Stacey Guerin of Glenburn’s bill, LD 988, as written would make it a crime to operate a motor vehicle after having been without sleep for 24 consecutive hours or “while the person’s ability or alertness is so impaired by fatigue as to make it unsafe to begin or continue to operate a motor vehicle.”

Law enforcement agencies and others who testified Monday during a public hearing on the bill said it would be difficult or impossible to enforce on a day-to-day basis. However, they acknowledged that in an investigation into a fatal crash, it might be possible to determine how much a driver had slept in the day or so before the fatality.

Guerin said she realized that.

“It will be hard to provide documentation of 24 hours without sleeping, so this bill is putting the bar really high on this law,” Guerin said Monday to the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee. “It would be an extreme case where documentation can be showed.”

One of the people who testified in favor of the bill was Jenny McPherson of Old Town, whose brother, Craig McPherson of Portland, was killed in March 2014 when he collided with a woman on his way to work. The woman allegedly admitted she hadn’t slept in more than a day.

“We don’t want this to happen to other families,” Jenny McPherson said after Monday’s hearing. “We need to have something bigger in law so people can say ‘I don’t want to do this because I could kill somebody and there are consequences for this action.’ There aren’t consequences at this point.”

According to the AAA Foundation, a driver who has had six to seven hours of sleep the night before is twice as likely to be involved in a crash than someone with eight hours of sleep. Someone driving on four or five hours of sleep increases the risk of a crash by up to five times.

An Australian study cited by Guerin found that someone who has been awake for 18 to 24 hours has an impairment level comparable to a blood alcohol average that is above the legal limit for driving.

Rep. Timothy Theriault, R-China, questioned the need for Guerin’s bill. He cited numerous professions in which workers are at times required to stay awake for more than 24 hours, including rescue workers.

“Making someone a criminal because their employer is saying ‘you have to do this’ is a real problem for me,” Theriault said.

Representatives from the Maine State Police and Augusta Police Department testified against the bill, based on the grounds it would be difficult to enforce. State Police Lt. Brian Scott said there have been about 30 people killed on Maine roadways during the past five years because of suspected fatigued driving.

Robert O’Connell, Jr., director of legal affairs for the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, also opposed the bill. He said driving while fatigued already could be seen as a criminal act under the state’s existing laws related to driving to endanger or failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle.

“Moreover, adoption of this proposal may result in unintended consequences for emergency services personnel — medical and non-medical — as well as for the physician community generally,” O’Connell said.

Guerin said after the hearing that she agrees the bill needs to be “narrowed down.”

“If it can come into play in those few incidences where there is a fatality and it’s provable that the person has been up for 24 hours or longer, that’s really irresponsible behavior,” she said. “Stop and take a nap.”

The Criminal Justice Committee is expected to make a recommendation on the bill and send it to the full Legislature in the coming weeks.