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H. B. No. 80 As IntroducedAs Introduced
128th General Assembly | Regular Session | 2009-2010 |
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Cosponsors:
Representatives Harris, Letson, Luckie, Newcomb, Okey, Phillips, Sayre, Yuko
A BILL
To amend sections 4511.75, 4511.771, and 4513.17 of
the Revised Code to require that all new school
buses be equipped with a single white strobe light
to be activated at all times when the bus is
transporting passengers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 4511.75, 4511.771, and 4513.17 of
the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:
Sec. 4511.75. (A) The driver of a vehicle, streetcar, or
trackless trolley upon meeting or overtaking from either
direction
any school bus stopped for the purpose of receiving or
discharging
any school child, person attending programs
offered
by community
boards of mental health and county boards of mental
retardation
and developmental disabilities, or child attending a
program
offered by a head
start agency passengers,
shall stop at least
ten
feet from
the front or rear of the school bus and shall not
proceed until
such school bus resumes motion, or until signaled
by
the school
bus driver to proceed.
It is no defense to a charge under this division that the
school bus involved failed to display or be equipped with an
automatically extended stop warning sign as required by division
(B) of this section.
(B) Every school bus shall be equipped with amber and red
visual signals meeting the requirements of section 4511.771 of
the
Revised Code, and an automatically extended stop warning sign
of a
type approved by the state board of education, which shall
be
actuated by the driver of the bus whenever but only whenever
the
bus is stopped or stopping on the roadway for the purpose of
receiving or discharging school children, persons attending
programs offered by community boards of mental health and county
boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, or
children attending programs offered by head start agencies
passengers. A
school bus driver shall not actuate the visual
signals or the
stop
warning sign in designated school bus loading
areas where
the bus
is entirely off the roadway or at school
buildings when
children
or persons attending programs offered by
community
boards of
mental health and county boards of mental
retardation
and
developmental disabilities passengers are loading
or unloading at
curbside or
at buildings when children attending
programs offered by head
start agencies are loading or unloading
at curbside. The visual
signals
and stop warning sign shall be
synchronized or otherwise
operated as required by rule of the
board.
The strobe light required by section 4511.771 of the Revised
Code shall be activated by the driver of the bus and remain in
operation at all times when the school bus is transporting
passengers.
(C) Where a highway has been divided into four or more
traffic lanes, a driver of a vehicle, streetcar, or trackless
trolley need not stop for a school bus approaching from the
opposite direction which has stopped for the purpose of receiving
or discharging any school child, persons attending programs
offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of
mental retardation and developmental disabilities, or children
attending programs offered by head start agencies passengers. The
driver of
any vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley overtaking
the
school
bus shall comply with division (A) of this section.
(D) School buses operating on divided highways or on
highways
with four or more traffic lanes shall receive and
discharge all
school children, persons attending programs
offered
by community
boards of mental health and county boards of
mental
retardation
and developmental disabilities, and children
attending
programs
offered by head start agencies passengers on their
residence side
of
the highway.
(E) No school bus driver shall start the driver's bus until
after
any child, person attending programs offered by community
boards of mental health and county boards of mental retardation
and developmental disabilities, or child attending a program
offered
by a head start agency passenger who may have alighted
therefrom
has
reached a place of safety on the child's or person's
passenger's
residence
side of the road.
(F)(1)
Whoever violates division (A) of this section may
be
fined an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars. A person who
is issued
a citation for a violation of division (A) of this
section is not
permitted to enter a written plea of guilty and
waive the person's right to
contest the citation in a trial but
instead must appear in person in the
proper court to answer the
charge.
(2) In addition to and independent of any other penalty
provided by law,
the court or mayor may impose upon an offender
who violates this section a
class seven suspension of the
offender's driver's license, commercial driver's
license,
temporary instruction permit, probationary license, or nonresident
operating privilege from the range specified in division (A)(7) of
section 4510.02 of the Revised Code. When a license is suspended
under this section, the
court or mayor shall cause the offender to
deliver the license to the court,
and the court or clerk of the
court immediately shall forward the license
to the registrar of
motor vehicles, together with notice of the court's
action.
(G) As used in this section:
(1) "Head start agency" has the same meaning as in section
3301.32 of the Revised Code.
(2) "School bus," as used in relation to children who
attend
a program offered by a head start agency, means a bus that is
owned and
operated by a head start agency, is equipped with an
automatically extended
stop warning sign of a type approved by the
state board of education, is
painted the color and displays the
markings described in section 4511.77 of
the
Revised Code,
and is
equipped with amber and red visual signals meeting the
requirements of
section 4511.771 of the Revised
Code, irrespective
of whether or not the bus
has fifteen or more children aboard at
any time. "School bus" does not
include a van owned and operated
by a head start agency, irrespective of its
color, lights, or
markings.
(3) "Passenger" means any school child, person attending
programs offered by community boards of mental health and county
boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, or
child attending a program offered by a head start agency.
Sec. 4511.771.
(A)(1) Every school bus shall, in addition to
any other
equipment and
distinctive markings required pursuant to
sections 4511.76, 4511.761,
4511.764,
and 4511.77 of the Revised
Code, be equipped with signal lamps mounted as high
as
practicable, which shall display to the front two alternately
flashing red
lights and two alternately flashing amber lights
located at the same level and
to the rear two alternately flashing
red lights and two alternately flashing
amber lights located at
the same level, and these lights shall be visible at
five hundred
feet in normal sunlight. The alternately flashing red lights
shall
be spaced as widely as practicable, and the alternately
flashing
amber
lights shall be located next to them.
(2) On and after the effective date of this section, every
new school bus that is acquired by any person to transport school
children, persons attending programs offered by community boards
of mental health and county boards of mental retardation and
developmental disabilities, or children attending a program
offered by a head start agency shall be equipped with a single
white strobe light, located in the middle of the bus roof.
(B) Except as otherwise provided in this division, whoever
violates
this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor. If,
within
one year of
the offense, the offender previously has been
convicted of or pleaded
guilty to one predicate motor vehicle or
traffic offense, whoever
violates this section is guilty of a
misdemeanor of the fourth
degree. If, within one year of the
offense, the offender
previously has been convicted of two or more
predicate motor
vehicle or traffic offenses, whoever violates this
section is
guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.
Sec. 4513.17. (A) Whenever a motor vehicle equipped with
headlights also is equipped with any auxiliary lights or
spotlight
or any other light on the front thereof projecting a
beam of an
intensity greater than three hundred candle power, not
more than a
total of five of any such lights on the front of a
vehicle shall
be lighted at any one time when the vehicle
is upon a highway.
(B) Any lighted light or illuminating device upon a motor
vehicle, other than headlights, spotlights, signal lights, or
auxiliary driving lights, that projects a beam of light of
an
intensity greater than three hundred candle power, shall be so
directed that no part of the beam will strike the level of the
roadway on which the vehicle stands at a distance of more than
seventy-five feet from the vehicle.
(C)(1) Flashing lights are prohibited on motor vehicles,
except as a means for indicating a right or a left turn, or in
the
presence of a vehicular traffic hazard requiring unusual care
in
approaching, or overtaking or passing. This prohibition does
not
apply to emergency vehicles, road service vehicles servicing
or
towing a disabled vehicle, traffic line stripers, snow plows,
rural mail delivery vehicles, vehicles as provided in section
4513.182 of the Revised Code, department of transportation
maintenance vehicles, funeral hearses, funeral escort vehicles,
and similar equipment operated by the department or local
authorities, which shall be equipped with and display, when used
on a street or highway for the special purpose necessitating such
lights, a flashing, oscillating, or rotating amber light, but
shall not display a flashing, oscillating, or rotating light of
any other color, nor to vehicles or machinery permitted by
section
4513.11 of the Revised Code to have a flashing red light.
(2) When used on a street or highway, farm machinery and
vehicles
escorting farm machinery may be equipped with and display
a flashing,
oscillating, or rotating amber light, and the
prohibition contained in division
(C)(1) of this section does not
apply to such machinery or vehicles.
Farm machinery also may
display the lights described in section 4513.11 of the Revised
Code.
(D)(1) Except a person operating a public safety vehicle, as
defined in division (E) of section 4511.01 of the Revised Code,
or
a school bus, no person shall operate, move, or park upon, or
permit to stand within the right-of-way of any public street or
highway any vehicle or equipment that is equipped with and
displaying a flashing red or a flashing combination red and white
light, or an oscillating or rotating red light, or a combination
red and white oscillating or rotating light; and except.
(2) Except a public
law enforcement officer, or other person
sworn to enforce the
criminal and traffic laws of the state,
operating a public safety
vehicle when on duty, no person shall
operate, move, or park
upon,
or permit to stand within the
right-of-way of any street or
highway any vehicle or equipment
that is equipped with, or
upon
which is mounted, and displaying a
flashing blue or a flashing
combination blue and white light, or
an oscillating or rotating
blue light, or a combination blue and
white oscillating or
rotating light.
(3) Except a person operating a school bus equipped with a
single white strobe light as required by section 4511.771 of the
Revised Code, no person shall operate, move, or park upon, or
permit to stand within the right-of-way of any public street or
highway any vehicle or equipment that is equipped with and
displaying a flashing white light that is not used in combination
with a red or blue light as provided in this section.
(E) This section does not prohibit the use of
warning lights
required by law or the simultaneous
flashing of turn signals on
disabled vehicles or on vehicles being operated
in unfavorable
atmospheric conditions in order to enhance their visibility.
This
section also does not prohibit the simultaneous flashing of turn
signals
or warning lights either on farm machinery or vehicles
escorting farm
machinery, when used on a street or highway.
(F)
Whoever violates this section shall be punished as
provided
in section
4513.99 of the Revised Code.
Section 2. That existing sections 4511.75, 4511.771, and
4513.17 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.
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