Bill Text: NY A05548 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires that signs posted for highway work zone traffic control, including but not limited to highway construction zones, maintenance work areas, or restricted highways, be promptly covered or removed whenever such sign or signs are not applicable.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - referred to transportation [A05548 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-A05548-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          5548

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 19, 2021
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of A. ENGLEBRIGHT, ABBATE, ABINANTI -- read once and
          referred to the Committee on Transportation

        AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in  relation  to  requiring
          the  removal  or  covering  of  inapplicable highway work zone traffic
          control signs

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  The  vehicle  and  traffic law is amended by adding a new
     2  section 1686 to read as follows:
     3    § 1686. Work zone signs. Any sign or signs  placed  for  highway  work
     4  zone  traffic  control,  including,  but not limited to, those placed in
     5  highway construction or maintenance work areas, or on  restricted  high-
     6  ways,  shall  be promptly covered or removed whenever such sign or signs
     7  are not applicable, as determined by the state or local authority having
     8  jurisdiction thereon.  For the purposes of this  subdivision,  the  term
     9  "restricted highway" shall mean a highway designated as such pursuant to
    10  section one hundred four-a of the highway law.
    11    § 2. Section 155 of the vehicle and traffic law, as amended by chapter
    12  157 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
    13    §  155.  Traffic  infraction.  The  violation of any provision of this
    14  chapter, except articles forty-seven and forty-eight and section sixteen
    15  hundred eighty-six of this chapter, or of  any  law,  ordinance,  order,
    16  rule  or  regulation  regulating  traffic  which is not declared by this
    17  chapter or other law of this state to be a misdemeanor or  a  felony.  A
    18  traffic  infraction  is  not a crime and the punishment imposed therefor
    19  shall not be deemed for any purpose a penal or criminal  punishment  and
    20  shall  not affect or impair the credibility as a witness or otherwise of
    21  any person convicted thereof. This definition shall be  retroactive  and
    22  shall  apply  to all acts and violations heretofore committed where such
    23  acts and violations would, if committed subsequent to the taking  effect
    24  of  this  section,  be  included within the meaning of the term "traffic

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05606-01-1
        A. 5548                             2

     1  infraction" as herein defined. Except in those portions of Suffolk coun-
     2  ty for which a district court has been established,  outside  of  cities
     3  having  a  population  in  excess of one million in which administrative
     4  tribunals have heretofore been established, courts and judicial officers
     5  heretofore having jurisdiction over such violations shall continue to do
     6  so and for such purpose such violations shall be deemed misdemeanors and
     7  all  provisions  of  law  relating to misdemeanors except as provided in
     8  section eighteen hundred five of  this  chapter  and  except  as  herein
     9  otherwise expressly provided shall apply except that no jury trial shall
    10  be  allowed for traffic infractions. In those portions of Suffolk county
    11  for which a district court has been established and in cities  having  a
    12  population  in  excess  of one million in which administrative tribunals
    13  have heretofore been established, the criminal courts of such cities  or
    14  portions  of  Suffolk  county  in which a district court has been estab-
    15  lished shall have jurisdiction  to  hear  and  determine  any  complaint
    16  alleging  a  violation  constituting  a  traffic infraction, except that
    17  administrative  tribunals  heretofore  established  in  such  cities  or
    18  portions  of  Suffolk  county  in which a district court has been estab-
    19  lished shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any  charge  of  an
    20  offense which is a traffic infraction, except parking, standing or stop-
    21  ping. In cities having a population in excess of two hundred thousand in
    22  which administrative tribunals have heretofore been established, and any
    23  such  administrative  tribunal  established  by the city of Yonkers, the
    24  city of Peekskill, or the city of Syracuse, such  tribunals  shall  have
    25  jurisdiction  to  hear and determine any charge of an offense which is a
    26  parking, standing or stopping violation. Any fine imposed by an adminis-
    27  trative tribunal shall be a civil penalty. For purposes of arrest  with-
    28  out  a  warrant,  pursuant  to article one hundred forty of the criminal
    29  procedure law, a traffic infraction shall be deemed an offense.
    30    § 3. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day  after  it  shall
    31  have become a law.