WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; then to the Committee
on Government Organization
A BILL to amend and
reenact §17E-1-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating
generally to commercial driver’s licenses; changing definition of “commercial
motor vehicle”; and removing requirement for commercial driver’s license when
a towing vehicle is below a certain gross vehicle weight rating.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §17E-1-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. COMMERCIAL
DRIVER'S LICENSE.
§17E-1-3. Definitions.
Notwithstanding any other
provision of this code, the following definitions apply to this article:
(1) "Alcohol" means:
(A) Any substance
containing any form of alcohol, including, but not limited to, ethanol,
methanol, propenyl propanol and isopropanol;
(B) Beer, ale, port or
stout and other similar fermented beverages, including sake or similar
products, of any name or description containing one half of one percent or more
of alcohol by volume, brewed or produced from malt, wholly or in part, or from
any substitute for malt;
(C) Distilled spirits or
that substance known as ethyl alcohol, ethanol or spirits of wine in any form
including all dilutions and mixtures thereof from whatever source or by
whatever process produced; or
(D) Wine of not less than
one half of one percent of alcohol by volume.
(2) "Alcohol concentration" means:
(A) The number of grams of alcohol per one hundred
milliliters of blood;
(B) The number of grams of
alcohol per two hundred ten liters of breath;
(C) The number of grams of
alcohol per sixty-seven milliliters of urine; or
(D) The number of grams of
alcohol per eighty-six milliliters of serum.
(3) "At fault traffic accident" means, for the purposes
of waiving the road test, a determination of fault by the official filing the
accident report as evidenced by an indication of contributing circumstances in
the accident report.
(4) "Commercial
driver's license" means a license or an instruction permit issued in
accordance with the requirements of this article to an individual which
authorizes the individual to drive a class of commercial motor vehicle.
(5) "Commercial
driver's license information system" is the information system established
pursuant to the Federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act to serve as a clearinghouse for locating
information related to the licensing and identification of commercial motor
vehicle drivers.
(6) "Commercial driver
instruction permit" means a permit issued pursuant to subsection (d),
section nine of this article.
(7) "Commercial motor
vehicle" means a motor vehicle designed or used to transport passengers or
property:
(A) If the vehicle has a gross combination vehicle
weight rating of twenty-six thousand one pounds or more inclusive of a towed
unit(s) with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than ten thousand pounds, but
not when the towing vehicle is designed for use as a stand-alone vehicle for
highway transportation of passengers and cargo and has a gross vehicle weight
rating of ten thousand pounds or less;
(B) If the vehicle has a gross
vehicle weight rating of twenty-six thousand one pounds or more;
(C) If the vehicle is
designed to transport sixteen or more passengers, including the driver; or
(D) If the vehicle is of
any size and transporting hazardous materials as defined in this section.
(8)
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of this
state.
(9) "Controlled
substance" means any substance classified under the provisions of chapter
sixty-a of this code, the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, and includes all substances listed on Schedules I
through V, inclusive, of article two of said chapter, as revised. The term "controlled substance" also has the meaning such term has under 21 U.S.C. §802.6
and includes all substances listed on Schedules I through V of 21 C.F.R. §1308
as they may be amended by the United States Department of Justice.
(10) "Conviction"
means an unvacated adjudication of guilt; a determination that a person has
violated or failed to comply with the law in a court of original jurisdiction
or by an authorized administrative tribunal or proceeding; an unvacated
forfeiture of bail or collateral deposited to secure the persons appearance in
court; a plea of guilty or nolo contendere accepted by the court or the payment
of a fine or court cost or violation of a condition of release without bail
regardless of whether or not the penalty is rebated, suspended, or probated.
(11) "Division"
means the Division of Motor Vehicles.
(12)
"Disqualification" means any of the following three actions:
(A) The suspension, revocation, or cancellation of a
driver's license by the state or
jurisdiction of issuance.
(B) Any withdrawal of a person's privilege to drive a commercial motor vehicle by a
state or other jurisdiction as the result of a violation of state or local law
relating to motor vehicle traffic control other than parking or vehicle weight
except as to violations committed by a special permittee on the coal resource
transportation system or vehicle defect violations.
(C) A determination by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that a person is not qualified to
operate a commercial motor vehicle under 49 C.F.R. Part §391 (2004).
(13) "Drive"
means to drive, operate or be in physical control of a motor vehicle in any
place open to the general public for purposes of vehicular traffic. For the
purposes of sections twelve, thirteen and fourteen of this article,
"drive" includes operation or physical control of a motor vehicle
anywhere in this state.
(14) "Driver"
means a person who drives, operates or is in physical control of a commercial
motor vehicle in any place open to the general public for purposes of vehicular
traffic or who is required to hold a commercial driver's license.
(15) "Driver's
license" means a license issued by a state to an individual which
authorizes the individual to drive a motor vehicle of a specific class.
(16) "Electronic device"
includes, but is not limited to, a cellular telephone, personal digital
assistant, pager or any other device used to input, write, send, receive, or
read text.
(17) "Employee"
means an operator of a commercial motor vehicle, including full time, regularly
employed drivers, casual, intermittent or occasional drivers, leased drivers
and independent, owner-operator contractors when operating a commercial motor
vehicle, who are either directly employed by or under lease to drive a
commercial motor vehicle for an employer.
(18) "Employer"
means a person, including the United States, a state or a political subdivision
of a state, who owns or leases a commercial motor vehicle or assigns a person
to drive a commercial motor vehicle.
(19) "Endorsement"
means an authorization to a person to operate certain types of commercial motor
vehicles.
(20) "Farm
vehicle" includes a motor vehicle or combination vehicle registered to a
farm owner or entity operating the farm and used exclusively in the
transportation of agricultural or horticultural products, livestock, poultry
and dairy products from the farm or orchard on which they are raised or
produced to markets, processing plants, packing houses, canneries, railway
shipping points and cold storage plants and in the transportation of
agricultural or horticultural supplies and machinery to the farms or orchards
to be used on the farms or orchards.
(21) "Farmer"
includes an owner, tenant, lessee, occupant or person in control of the
premises used substantially for agricultural or horticultural pursuits who is
at least eighteen years of age with two years licensed driving experience.
(22) "Farmer vehicle
driver" means the person employed and designated by the "farmer"
to drive a "farm vehicle" as long as driving is not his or her sole
or principal function on the farm and who is at least eighteen years of age
with two years licensed driving experience.
(23) "Felony"
means an offense under state or federal law that is punishable by death or
imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
(24) "Gross
combination weight rating (GCWR)" means the value specified by the
manufacturer as the loaded weight of a combination, articulated vehicle. In the
absence of a value specified by the manufacturer, GCWR will be determined by
adding the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the power unit and the total
weight of the towed unit and load, if any.
(25) "Gross vehicle
weight rating (GVWR)" means the value specified by the manufacturer as the
loaded weight of a single vehicle. In the absence of a value specified by the
manufacturer, the GVWR will be determined by the total weight of the vehicle
and load, if any.
(26) "Hazardous
materials" means any material that has been designated as hazardous under
49 U.S.C. §5103 and is required to be placarded under subpart F of 49 C.F.R., Part
§172 or any quantity of a material listed as a select agent or toxin in 42
C.F.R., Part §73.
(27) "Imminent hazard"
means existence of a condition that presents a substantial likelihood that
death, serious illness, severe personal injury or a substantial endangerment to
health, property or the environment may occur before the reasonably foreseeable
completion date of a formal proceeding begun to lessen the risk of that death,
illness, injury or endangerment.
(28) "Issuance of a license" means the completion of a transaction signifying that
the applicant has met all the requirements to qualify for, including, but not
limited to: The initial issuance of a driver's
license, the renewal of a driver's
license, the issuance of a duplicate license as a replacement to a lost or
stolen driver's license, the transfer of
any level of driving privileges including the privilege of operating a
commercial motor vehicle from another state or jurisdiction, the changing of
driver's license class, restrictions or
endorsements or the change of any other information pertaining to an applicant
either appearing on the face of a driver's
license or within the driver record of the licensee maintained by the division.
(29) "Motor
vehicle" means every vehicle which is self-propelled and every vehicle
which is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires but
not operated upon rails.
(30) "Noncommercial motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle or combination of motor
vehicles not defined by the term "commercial
motor vehicle".
(31) "Out-of-service
order" means a declaration by an authorized enforcement officer of a
federal, state, Canadian, Mexican, county or local jurisdiction including any
special agent of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that a driver, a commercial motor
vehicle, or a motor carrier operation is out of service pursuant to 49 C.F.R. '§386.72,
392.5, 395.13, 396.9 or compatible laws or the North American uniform out-of-service criteria that an
imminent hazard exists.
(32) "Violation of an out-of-service order" means:
(A) The operation of a commercial motor vehicle during
the period the driver was placed out-of-service;
(B) The operation of a
commercial motor vehicle by a driver after the vehicle was placed out-of-service
and before the required repairs are made; or
(C) The operation of any
commercial vehicle by a motor carrier operation after the carrier has been
placed out of service.
(33) "School bus"
means a commercial motor vehicle used to transport preprimary, primary or
secondary school students from home-to-school, from school-to-home or to and
from school sponsored events. School bus does not include a bus used as a
common carrier.
(34) "Serious traffic
violation" means conviction for any of the following offenses when
operating a commercial motor vehicle:
(A) Excessive speeding involving any single offense for
any speed of fifteen miles per hour or more above the posted limits;
(B) Reckless driving as
defined in section three, article five, chapter seventeen-c of this code and
careless or negligent driving, including, but not limited to, the offenses of
driving a commercial motor vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the
safety of persons or property;
(C) Erratic or improper
traffic lane changes including, but not limited to, passing a school bus when
prohibited, improper lane changes and other passing violations;
(D) Following the vehicle
ahead too closely;
(E) Driving a commercial
motor vehicle without obtaining a commercial driver's license;
(F) Driving a commercial
motor vehicle without a commercial driver's
license in the driver's possession.
However, any person who provides proof to the law-enforcement agency that
issued the citation, by the date the person must appear in court or pay any
fine for such violation, that the person held a valid commercial driver's license on the date the citation was issued, shall
not be guilty of this offense;
(G) Driving a commercial
motor vehicle without the proper class of commercial driver's license or endorsements for the specific vehicle
group being operated or for the passengers or type of cargo being transported;
(H) A violation of state or local law relating to motor
vehicle traffic control, other than a parking violation, arising in connection
with a fatal traffic accident; or
(I) Any other serious violations determined by the United
States Secretary of Transportation.
(J) Vehicle defects are
excluded as serious traffic violations except as to violations committed by a
special permittee on the coal resource transportation road system.
(35) "State"
means a state of the United States and the District of Columbia or a province
or territory of Canada or a state or federal agency of the United Mexican
States.
(36)"State of domicile"
means the state where a person has his or her true, fixed and permanent home
and principle residence and to which he or she has the intention of returning
whenever absent in accordance with chapter seventeen-a, article three, section
one-a.
(37) "Suspension, revocation or cancellation" of a driver's
license or a commercial driver's license
means the privilege to operate any type of motor vehicle on the roads and
highways of this state is withdrawn.
(38) "Tank vehicle" means any commercial motor vehicle
that is designed to transport any liquid or gaseous materials within a tank
that is either permanently or temporarily attached to the vehicle or the
chassis. These vehicles include, but are not limited to, cargo tanks and
portable tanks as defined in 49 C. F. R. Part 171 (1998). This definition does
not include portable tanks having a rated capacity under one thousand gallons.
(39) "Texting"
means manually entering alphanumeric text into or reading text from an
electronic device.
(A) This action includes, but is not limited to, short messaging
service, e-mailing, instant messaging and a command or request to access a
World Wide Web page or engaging in any other form of electronic text retrieval
or entry for present or future communication.
(B) Texting does not
include:
(i) Reading, selecting or
entering a telephone number, an extension number or voicemail retrieval codes
and commands into an electronic device for the purpose of initiating or
receiving a phone call or using voice commands to initiate or receive a
telephone call;
(ii) Inputting, selecting
or reading information on a global positioning system or navigation system; or
(iii) Using a device
capable of performing multiple functions including, but not limited to, fleet
management systems, dispatching devices, smart phones, citizen band radios or
music players for a purpose that is not otherwise prohibited by this section
(40) "Transportation Security Administration"
means the United States Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security
Administration.
(41) "United States"
means the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
(42) "Valid or Certified Medical Certification Status" means that an applicant or driver has a current
medical evaluation or determination by a licensed physician that the applicant
or driver meets the minimum federal motor carrier safety administration
physical qualifications within the prescribed time frames pursuant to 49
CFR Part §391. Not-certified means that an applicant or driver does not have a
current medical evaluation or has not been certified by a licensed physician as
meeting the minimum federal motor carrier safety administration physical
qualifications pursuant to 49 CFR
Part § 391.
(43) "Vehicle Group"
means a class or type of vehicle with certain operating characteristics.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.