Bill Text: NJ A492 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires school bus drivers to pass physical performance test to operate school bus.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee [A492 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A492-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ROBERT D. CLIFTON
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Requires school bus drivers to pass physical performance test to operate school bus.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning school bus driver certifications and supplementing Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Every driver of a school bus, as defined in R.S.39:1-1, or other vehicle used or operated under contract awarded by a board of education or a private school for the transportation of pupils to and from school shall, in addition to any other exam required by law, submit to a physical performance test to assess a driver's ability to operate a school bus or other vehicle used to transport pupils.
The physical performance test shall assess a driver's ability to quickly and efficiently: exit a school bus from the front and back of a school bus; operate a school bus door; operate the clutch and break pedals of a school bus; perform alternate operation between the break and accelerator pedals of a school bus; identify and perform alternate operation between the right side and left side hand controls; drag a weight of at least 125 pounds for at least 30 feet to simulate the evacuation of pupils; and any other physical activity that the Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission shall deem appropriate for the safe operation of a school bus.
The physical performance test shall be administered upon each initial issuance, and renewal thereof, of a school bus endorsement in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the chief administrator and subject to oversight by the commission.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the thirteenth month following enactment and shall apply only to such special licenses issued or renewed on or after this date. The Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission may take such anticipatory administrative actions in advance of the effective date of this act as shall be necessary for the timely implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that, in addition to any other exam required by law, every driver of a school bus or other vehicle used or operated under contract awarded by a board of education or a private school for the transportation of pupils to and from school to submit to a physical performance test (test). The test is to assess a driver's ability to operate a school bus or other vehicle used to transport pupils.
Under the bill, the test is to assess a driver's ability to quickly and efficiently: exit a school bus from the front and back of a school bus; operate a school bus door; operate the clutch and break pedals of a school bus; perform alternate operation between the break and accelerator pedals of a school bus; identify and perform alternate operation between the right side and left side hand controls; drag a weight of at least 125 pounds for at least 30 feet to simulate the evacuation of pupils; and any other physical activity that the Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (commission) deems appropriate for the safe operation of a school bus.
The bill requires the test to be administered upon each initial issuance, and renewal thereof, of a school bus endorsement in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the Chief Administrator of the commission and subject to oversight by the commission.
It is the sponsor's intent that the test is to be similar to tests administered to school bus drivers in other states, which include Arizona, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
