Introduced Version
Senate Bill 543 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 543
(By Senators Barnes, Love, Fanning, Edgell and Sypolt)
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[Introduced February 1, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Agriculture; and then to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §17E-1-3 and §17E-1-8 of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to exempting
farm vehicles from commercial motor vehicle regulations when
farmers drive farm vehicles across state lines but within one
hundred fifty miles of their qualifying farms; and driving
farm vehicles carrying materials not required to be placarded
under Subpart F of 49 C. F. R. Part §172 as "hazardous
materials".
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §17E-1-3 and §17E-1-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted, all 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, 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; or
(C) The number of grams of alcohol per sixty-seven milliliters
of urine.
(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, by the official filing the
accident report, of fault as evidenced by an indication of
contributing circumstances in the accident report.
(4) "Commercial driver's license" means a license 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 26,001 pounds or more inclusive of a towed unit(s) with
a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds;
(B) If the vehicle has a gross vehicle weight rating of more
than 26,001 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 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 (Uniform
Controlled Substances Act) and includes all substances listed on
Schedules I through V, inclusive, article two of said chapter
sixty-a, as they are 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 any 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) "Employee" means any operator of a commercial motor
vehicle, including full time, regularly employed drivers; casual,
intermittent, or occasional drivers; leased drivers and
independent, owner-operator contractors (while in the course of
operating a commercial motor vehicle) who are either directly
employed by or under lease to drive a commercial motor vehicle for
an employer.
(17) "Employer" means any 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.
(18) "Endorsement" means an authorization to a person to
operate certain types of commercial motor vehicles.
(19) "Farm vehicle" includes a motor vehicle or combination
vehicle registered to the 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, including transportation
across state lines, and in the transportation of agricultural or
horticultural supplies and machinery to the farms or orchards to be
used on the farms or orchards, including transportation across
state lines.
(20) "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.
(21) "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
who is at least eighteen years of age with two years' licensed
driving experience.
(22) "Felony" means an offense under state or federal law that
is punishable by death or imprisonment for a term exceeding one
year.
(23) "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 (GVWR) of the
power unit and the total weight of the towed unit and any load
thereon.
(24) "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 any load thereon.
(25) "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.
(26) "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.
(27) "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.
(28) "Noncommercial motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle or
combination of motor vehicles not defined by the term "commercial
motor vehicle".
(29) "Out-of-service order" means a temporary prohibition
against driving a commercial motor vehicle as a result of a
determination by a law-enforcement officer, 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 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.
(30) "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; or
(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.
(31) "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.
(32) "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, 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 and/or, endorsements for the
specific vehicle group being operated or for the passengers or type
of cargo being transported; or
(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.
(I) Vehicle defects are excluded as serious traffic
violations, except as to violations committed by a special
permittee on the coal resource transportation road system; or
(J) Any other serious violations determined by the United
States Secretary of Transportation.
(33) "State" means a state of the United States and the
District of Columbia.
(34) "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.
(35) "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.
(36) "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). However, this definition does not include portable tanks
having a rated capacity under one thousand gallons.
(37) "Transportation Security Administration" means the United
States Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security
Administration.
(38) "United States" means the fifty states and the District
of Columbia.
(39) "Vehicle Group" means a class or type of vehicle with
certain operating characteristics.
§17E-1-8. Exemptions to the commercial driver's license
requirements.
(a) Bona fide farmers or farm vehicle drivers, as defined,
operating a vehicle otherwise covered by the commercial driver's
license requirements may be exempted from the provisions of this
article only if the vehicle used is:
(1) Driven by a farmer or farm vehicle driver;
(2) Used only to transport either agricultural products, farm
machinery, farm supplies, or materials not required to be placarded
under subpart F of 49 C.F.R. Part §172 as "hazardous materials," to
or from a farm;
(3) Not used in the operation of a common or contract motor
carrier; and
(4) Used within one hundred fifty miles of the qualifying
farm, including transportation across state lines.
Farmers who wish to be exempted from the commercial driver's
license requirements must apply to the Division of Motor Vehicles
for a certificate of exemption.
(b) Active duty military personnel operating vehicles being
used for military purposes are exempted from the provisions of this
article in accordance with the provisions of 49 C.F.R §383.3
(c)(2006).
(c) Fire fighting and rescue equipment. Operators of vehicles
authorized to hold an "authorized emergency vehicle permit" for use
of red signal lights only are exempt from the provisions of this
article while the "authorized emergency vehicle permit" is in force. Vehicles in this class include, but are not limited to,
firefighters and rescue equipment:
(1) Owned and operated by state, county and municipal fire
departments;
(2) Owned and operated by state, county and municipal civil
defense organizations;
(3) Owned and operated by a manufacturer engaged in a type of
business that requires firefighter equipment to protect the safety
of their plants and its employees; or
(4) Owned and operated by volunteer fire departments.
(d) Operators of off-road construction and mining equipment.
Operators of equipment which, by its design, appearance and
function, is not intended for use on a public road, including,
without limitation, motorscrapers, backhoes, motorgraders,
compactors, excavators, tractors, trenches and bulldozers, are
exempt from the provisions of this article: Provided, That the
exemption recognized by this subsection shall not be construed to
permit the operation of such equipment on any public road except
such operation as may be required for a crossing of such road:
Provided, however, That no such equipment may be operated on a
public road for a distance exceeding five hundred feet from the
place where such equipment entered upon the public road.
(e) The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999
exempts vehicles used exclusively for personal use such as recreation vehicles and rental trucks used only to transport the
driver's personal or household property.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exempt farm vehicles from
commercial motor vehicle regulations when farmers drive farm
vehicles across state lines, but within 150 miles of their
qualifying farms, and when farmers drive farm vehicles carrying
materials not required to be placarded under subpart F of 49 C.F.R.
Part §172 as "hazardous materials."
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.