Senate Bill No. 245
(By Senators Burdette, Mr. President, and Boley,
By Request of the Executive)
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[Introduced March 1, 1993; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section three, article four, chapter
seventeen-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to suspension and
revocation of driver's licenses; and applying the same
administrative penalty upon receipt of abstract of
conviction for operating a motor vehicle while a driver's
license is suspended or revoked.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article four, chapter seventeen-b of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted as follows:
ARTICLE 4. VIOLATIONS OF LICENSE PROVISIONS.
§17B-4-3. Driving while license suspended or revoked; driving
while license revoked for driving under the influence of
alcohol, controlled substances or drugs, or while having
alcoholic concentration in the blood of ten hundreths of one
percent or more, by weight, or for refusing to takesecondary chemical test of blood alcohol contents.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this
section, any person who drives a motor vehicle on any public
highway of this state at a time when his or her privilege so to
do has been lawfully suspended or revoked by this state, or his
or her home jurisdiction shall, for the first offense, be guilty
of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
imprisoned in the county jail for forty-eight hours, and, in
addition to such mandatory jail sentence, shall be fined not less
than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars; for the
second offense, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,
and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment
in the county jail for a period of ten days and, in addition to
such mandatory jail sentence, shall be fined not less than one
hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars; for the third
or any subsequent offense, such person shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in
the county jail for six months and, in addition to such mandatory
jail sentence, shall be fined not less than one hundred fifty
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars.
(b) Any person who drives a motor vehicle on any public
highway of this state at a time when his or her privilege so to
do has been lawfully revoked for driving under the influence of
alcohol, controlled substances or other drugs, or while having an
alcoholic concentration in his or her blood of ten hundredths of
one percent or more, by weight, or for refusing to take asecondary chemical test of blood alcohol content shall, for the
first offense, be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be imprisoned in the county jail for six months
and in addition to such mandatory jail sentence, shall be fined
not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred
dollars; for the second offense, such person shall be guilty of
a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by
imprisonment in the county jail for a period of one year and, in
addition to such mandatory jail sentence, shall be fined not less
than one thousand dollars nor more than three thousand dollars;
for the third or any subsequent offense, such person shall be
guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than one year nor
more than three years and, in addition to such mandatory jail
sentence, shall be fined not less than three thousand dollars nor
more than five thousand dollars.
(c) The department division upon receiving a record of the
conviction of any person under this section upon a charge of
driving a vehicle while the license of such person was lawfully
revoked or suspended shall extend the period of such revocation
or suspension for an additional like period equal to the minimum
period of suspension or revocation set forth in the
commissioner's order. and if the conviction was upon a charge of
driving while a license was revoked lawfully the department shall
not issue a new license for an additional period of one year from
and after the date such person would otherwise have been entitledto apply for a new license
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make the same license
suspension/revocation extension penalty apply for both
convictions for driving while revoked and driving while
suspended.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.