Bill Text: NJ A925 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires school buses transporting certain disabled persons to use flashing lights and establishes penalties for drivers who fail to yield.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-06-21 - Substituted by S618 [A925 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-A925-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
215th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2012 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman CELESTE M. RILEY
District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
Assemblyman JOHN J. BURZICHELLI
District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblymen Milam and Albano
SYNOPSIS
Requires school buses transporting certain disabled persons to use flashing lights and establishes penalties for drivers who fail to yield.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning operation of school buses when transporting certain disabled persons and amending P.L.1965, c.119 and P.L.1942, c.19.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.1965, c.119 (C.39:3B-1) is amended to read as follows:
1. Every bus when being used to transport children to and from school pursuant to [sections] R.S.18:14-8 to 18:14-12, inclusive, [of the Revised Statutes] shall be equipped with electric identification and warning lamps which, when such bus has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any school child, will exhibit a flashing red light plainly visible at such a distance as will enable the driver of a vehicle approaching or overtaking the bus to see the red light in sufficient time to bring the same to a stop within 10 feet of the bus. Such lamps shall meet the requirements prescribed by the State Board of Education, which requirements shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of this Title or any rule or regulation made pursuant thereto.
If a vehicle is equipped with electric identification and warning lamps that are required under this act and is stopped on the highway for the purpose of receiving or discharging a person who has a developmental disability, the driver of the vehicle shall activate the flashing lights and any other equipment, including a crossing arm, installed on the vehicle for the safety of passengers crossing a highway.
Nothing contained herein shall be construed to apply to any motorbus when carrying passengers for hire over any street or road and accepting and discharging indiscriminately such persons as may offer themselves for transportation either at the termini or points along the route on which it is being operated.
(cf: P.L.1965, c. 119, s. 1)
2. Section 1 of P.L.1942, c.192 (C.39:4-128.1) is amended to read as follows:
1. On highways having roadways not divided by safety islands or physical traffic separation installations, the driver of a vehicle approaching or overtaking a bus, which is being used [solely] for the transportation of children to or from school or a summer day camp or any school connected activity, or which is being used for the transportation of a person who has a developmental disability, and which has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any child or a person who has a developmental disability, shall stop such vehicle not less than 25 feet from such school bus and keep such vehicle stationary until such child or person who has a developmental disability has entered said bus or has alighted and reached the side of such highway and until a flashing red light is no longer exhibited by the bus; provided, such bus is designated as a school bus by one sign on the front and one sign on the rear, with each letter on such signs at least four inches in height.
On highways having dual or multiple roadways separated by safety islands or physical traffic separation installations, the driver of a vehicle overtaking a school bus, which has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any child or any person who has a developmental disability, shall stop such vehicle not less than 25 feet from such school bus and keep such vehicle stationary until such child or person who has a developmental disability has entered said bus or has alighted and reached the side of the highway and until a flashing red light is no longer exhibited by the bus.
On highways having dual or multiple roadways separated by safety islands or physical traffic separation installations, the driver of a vehicle on another roadway approaching a school bus, which has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any child, or any person who has a developmental disability shall reduce the speed of his vehicle to not more than 10 miles per hour and shall not resume normal speed until the vehicle has passed the bus and has passed any child who may have alighted therefrom or be about to enter said bus.
For purposes of this section, "highway" means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way whether publicly or privately maintained when any part thereof is open to the public for purposes of vehicular travel.
Whenever a school bus is parked at the curb for the purpose of receiving children directly from a school or a summer day camp or any school connected activity or discharging children to enter a school, or a summer day camp or any school connected activity, which is located on the same side of the street as that on which the bus is parked, drivers of vehicles shall be permitted to pass said bus without stopping, but at a speed not in excess of 10 miles per hour.
Whenever a school bus is parked at the curb for the purpose of receiving a person who has a developmental disability on the same side of the street as that on which the bus is parked, drivers of vehicles shall be permitted to pass said bus without stopping, but at a speed not in excess of 10 miles per hour.
The driver of a bus which is being used [solely] for the transportation of children to or from school or a summer day camp or any school connected activity, or for the transportation of a person who has a developmental disability shall continue to exhibit a flashing red light and shall not start his bus until every child who may have alighted therefrom shall have reached a place of safety.
Any person who shall violate any provision of this act shall be subject to (1) a fine of not less than $100.00, (2) imprisonment for not more than 15 days or community service for 15 days in such form and on such terms as the court shall deem appropriate, (3) or both for the first offense, and a fine not less than $250.00, imprisonment for not more than 15 days, or both for each subsequent offense. The penalties shall be enforced and recovered pursuant to the provisions of chapter 5 of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle which was involved in the violation of this section was the person who committed the act. Any person who suppresses, by way of concealment or destruction, any evidence of a violation of this section or who suppresses the identity of the violator shall be subject to a fine of $100.
The [Director of the Division of] Chief Administrator of the Motor [Vehicles] Vehicle Commission may also revoke the license to drive a motor vehicle of any person who shall have been guilty of such willful violation of any of the provisions of this act as shall, in the discretion of the [director] chief administrator, justify such revocation, but the [director] chief administrator shall, at all times, have power to validate such a license which has been revoked, or to grant a new license to any person whose license to drive a motor vehicle shall have been revoked pursuant to this act.
(cf: P.L.2000, c.85, s.2)
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require the operators of school buses to activate flashing lights and other safety equipment when a school bus is stopped on a highway for the purpose of discharging or receiving a person who has a developmental disability. Other motorists would be required to stop their vehicles at a distance of at least 25 feet from a school bus that has activated its flashing lights pursuant to the provisions of the bill. The flashing lights would be activated while the bus is stopped to discharge or receive a person and remain activated until a child or person who has a developmental disability has reached a place of safety.
The bill would allow for vehicles moving at a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour to pass a school bus, if the bus is parked on the side of the highway on which it is discharging or receiving passengers.
A person who violates a provision of this bill would be subject to the following penalties: (1) a fine of not less than $100, (2) imprisonment for not more than 15 days or community service for 15 days in such form and on such terms as the court shall deem appropriate, (3) or both for the first offense, and a fine not less than $250, imprisonment for not more than 15 days, or both for each subsequent offense.
