Bill Text: WV SB604 | 2008 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Creating expectant mother parking permit
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2008-02-07 - To Transportation and Infrastructure [SB604 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2008-SB604-Introduced.html
A BILL to amend and reenact §17C-13-6 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to providing for an expectant mother parking permit to be valid until the newborn infant's first birthday.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §17C-13-6 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13. STOPPING, STANDING AND PARKING.
§17C-13-6. Stopping, standing or parking privileges for persons with a mobility impairment; definitions; qualification; special registration plates and removable windshield placards; expiration; application; violation; penalties.
(a) (1) The commissioner may issue up to two special registration plates or removable windshield placards to a person with a mobility impairment or a West Virginia organization which transports persons with disabilities and facilitates the mobility of its customers, patients, students or persons otherwise placed under its responsibility. The commissioner may also issue up to two removable windshield placards to an expectant mother, upon entering her third trimester, to be valid until the date of the newborn infant's first birthday.
(2) Special registration plates or placards may only be issued for placement on a Class A or Class G motor vehicle registered under the provisions of article three, chapter seventeen-a of this code.
(3) The applicant shall specify whether he or she is applying for a special registration plate, a removable windshield placard or both on the application form prescribed and furnished by the commissioner.
(4) The applicant shall submit, with the application, a certificate issued by any physician, chiropractor, advanced nurse practitioner or physician's assistant who is licensed in this state, stating that the applicant has a mobility impairment, is an expectant mother entering her third trimester or that the applicant is an organization which regularly transports a person with a mobility impairment as defined in this section. The physician, chiropractor, advanced nurse practitioner or physician's assistant shall specify in the certificate whether
(5) Upon receipt of the completed application, the physician's certificate and the regular registration fee for the applicant's vehicle class, if the commissioner finds that the applicant qualifies for the special registration plate or a removable windshield placard, including an "Expectant Mother" removable windshield placard, as provided in this section, he or she shall issue to the applicant a special registration plate (upon remittance of the regular registration fee) or a removable windshield placard (red for temporary and blue for permanent), or both, or an "Expectant Mother" removable windshield placard (pastel green or a white background). Upon request, the commissioner shall also issue to any otherwise qualified applicant one additional placard having the same expiration date as the applicant's original placard. The placard shall be displayed by hanging it from the interior rearview mirror of the motor vehicle so that it is conspicuously visible from outside the vehicle when parked in a designated accessible parking space. The placard may be removed from the rearview mirror whenever the vehicle is being operated to ensure clear vision and safe driving. Only in the event that there is no suitable rearview mirror in the vehicle may the placard be displayed on the dashboard of the vehicle.
(6) Organization which transport people with disabilities will be provided with a placard which will permit them to park in a designate area for the length of time necessary to load and unload passengers. These vehicles must be moved to a nondesignated space once the loading or unloading process is complete.
(b) As used in this section, the following terms have the meanings ascribed to them in this subsection:
(1) A person or applicant with a "mobility impairment" means a person who is a citizen of West Virginia and as determined by a physician, allopath or osteopath, chiropractor, advanced nurse practitioner or physician's assistant licensed to practice in West Virginia:
(A) Cannot walk two hundred feet without stopping to rest;
(B) Cannot walk without the use of or assistance from a brace, cane, crutch, prosthetic device, wheelchair, other assistive device or another person;
(C) Is restricted by lung disease to such an extent that the person's force (respiratory) expiratory volume for one second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty mm/hg on room air at rest;
(D) Uses portable oxygen;
(E) Has a cardiac condition to such an extent that the person's functional limitations are classified in severity as Class III or Class IV according to standards established by the American Heart Association; or
(F) Is severely limited in his or her ability to walk because of an arthritic, neurological or other orthopedic condition;
(2) "Special registration plate" means a registration plate that displays the international symbol of access, as adopted by the Rehabilitation International Organization in nineteen hundred sixty-nine at its Eleventh World Congress on Rehabilitation of the Disabled, in a color that contrasts with the background, in letters and numbers the same size as those on the plate, and which may be used in lieu of a regular registration plate;
(3) "Mobility impairment removable windshield placard" (permanent,
(A) The international symbol of access, measuring at least three inches in height, centered on the placard, in white on a blue background for permanent designations and in white on a red background for temporary designations;
(B) An identification number measuring one inch in height;
(C) An expiration date in numbers measuring one inch in height; and
(D) The seal or other identifying symbol of the issuing authority;
(4) "Expectant Mother removable windshield placard" means a two-sided, hanger-style placard measuring three inches by nine and one-half inches, with all of the following on each side:
(A) The standard "Expectant Mother" graphic featuring a stork carrying a baby, measuring at least three inches in height, centered on the placard, in pastel green on a white background;
(B) An identification number measuring one inch in height;
(C) An expiration date in numbers measuring one inch in height; and
(D) The seal or other identifying symbol of the issuing authority;
(A) Inns, hotels, motels and other places of lodging;
(B) Restaurants, bars or other establishments serving food or drink;
(C) Motion picture houses, theaters, concert halls, stadiums or other places of exhibition or entertainment;
(D) Auditoriums, convention centers, lecture halls or other places of public gatherings;
(E) Bakeries, grocery stores, clothing stores, hardware stores, shopping centers or other sales or rental establishments;
(F) Laundromats, dry cleaners, banks, barber and beauty shops, travel agencies, shoe repair shops, funeral parlors, gas or service stations, offices of accountants and attorneys, pharmacies, insurance offices, offices of professional health care providers, hospitals or other service establishments;
(G) Terminals, depots or other stations used for public transportation;
(H) Museums, libraries, galleries or other places of public display or collection;
(I) Parks, zoos, amusement parks or other places of recreation;
(J) Public or private nursery, elementary, secondary, undergraduate or post-graduate schools or other places of learning and day care centers, senior citizen centers, homeless shelters, food banks, adoption agencies or other social services establishments; and
(K) Gymnasiums, health spas, bowling alleys, golf courses or other places of exercise or recreation;
(9) "Commercial facility" means a facility whose operations affect commerce and which are intended for nonresidential use by a private entity;
(10) "Accessible parking" formerly known as "handicapped parking" is the present phrase consistent with language within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
(11) "Parking enforcement personnel" includes any law-enforcement officer as defined by section one, article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of this code, and private security guards, parking personnel and other personnel authorized by a city, county or the state to issue parking citations.
Any person who falsely or fraudulently obtains or seeks to obtain the special plate or the removable windshield placard provided for in this section and any person who falsely certifies that a person is mobility impaired in order that an applicant may be issued the special registration plate or windshield placard under this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined five hundred dollars. Any person who fabricates, uses or sells unofficially issued windshield placards to any person or organization is committing a fraudulent act and is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined five hundred dollars per placard fabricated, used or sold. Any person who fabricates, uses or sells unofficially issued identification cards to any person or organization is committing a fraudulent act and is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined seven hundred dollars per identification card fabricated, used or sold. Any person who fabricates, uses or sells unofficially issued labels imprinted with a future expiration date to any person or organization is committing a fraudulent act and is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined seven hundred dollars. Any person covered by this section who sells or gives away their officially issued windshield placard to any person or organization not qualified to apply or receive the placard and then reapplies for a new placard on the basis it was stolen is committing a fraudulent act and is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he, she or they may otherwise incur, shall lose their right to receive or use a special placard or special license plate for a period of not less than five years.
(c) The commissioner shall set the expiration date for special registration plates and permanent removable windshield placards on the last day of a given month and year, to be valid for a minimum of one year but not more than five years, after which time a new application must be submitted to the commissioner. After the commissioner receives the new application, signed by a certified physician, chiropractor, advanced nurse practitioner or physician's assistant, the commissioner shall issue: (i) A new special registration plate or new permanent removable windshield placard; or (ii) official labels imprinted with the new expiration date and designed so as to be placed over the old dates on the original registration plate or windshield placard.
(d) The commissioner shall set the expiration date of temporary removable windshield placards to be valid for a period of approximately six months after the application was received and approved by the commissioner.
(e) The commissioner shall set the expiration date of temporary "Expectant Mother" removable windshield placards to correspond to the newborn infant's first birthday after such an application is received and approved by the commissioner.
The parking privileges provided for in this subsection apply only during those times when the vehicle is being used for the loading or unloading of a person with a mobility impairment, or for the loading or unloading of an expectant mother. Any person who knowingly exercises, or attempts to exercise, these privileges at a time when the vehicle is not being used for the loading or unloading of a person with a mobility impairment, or for the loading or unloading of an expectant mother is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon first conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined two hundred dollars; upon second conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined three hundred dollars; and upon third and subsequent convictions thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined five hundred dollars.
Any person who violates the provisions of this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined two hundred dollars; upon second conviction thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined three hundred dollars; and upon third and subsequent convictions thereof, in addition to any other penalty he or she may otherwise incur, shall be fined five hundred dollars.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a parking permit to be used by expectant mothers entering their third trimesters and lasting until the first birthday of the child. Such a permit would allow an expectant mother to park in a parking place marked with the international symbol of access. This bill also encourages the private sector to enact similar policies.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.