Bill Text: NY A07628 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Requires the reporting of certain accidents involving vehicles, including electric scooters and bicycles with electric assist; requires reports to include information indicating whether certain accidents involved electric scooters and bicycles with electric assist.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 16-2)
Status: (Passed) 2024-07-11 - signed chap.196 [A07628 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A07628-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7628--A 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY May 25, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BORES, DE LOS SANTOS, SEAWRIGHT, ZINERMAN, ARDI- LA, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, GLICK, O'DONNELL, SIMON, SIMONE, CHANG, EPSTEIN, LEVENBERG, LEMONDES -- read once and referred to the Committee on Transportation -- recommitted to the Committee on Transportation in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit- tee AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to reporting accidents involving electric scooters and bicycles with electric assist The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 603 of the vehicle and traffic 2 law, as amended by chapter 432 of the laws of 1997, is amended to read 3 as follows: 4 1. Every police or judicial officer to whom an accident resulting in 5 injury to a person shall have been reported, pursuant to the foregoing 6 provisions of this chapter or pursuant to the provisions of sections 7 twelve hundred forty or twelve hundred forty-one of this chapter involv- 8 ing a bicycle with electric assist or pursuant to the provisions of 9 sections twelve hundred eighty-seven or twelve hundred eighty-eight of 10 this chapter, shall immediately investigate the facts, or cause the same 11 to be investigated, and report the matter to the commissioner forthwith; 12 provided, however, that the report of the accident is made to the police 13 officer or judicial officer within five days after such accident. Every 14 coroner, or other official performing like functions, shall likewise 15 make a report to the commissioner with respect to all deaths found to 16 have been the result of motor vehicle [or], motorcycle, electric scoot- 17 er, or bicycle with electric assist accidents. Such report shall include 18 information regarding the type or types of vehicles involved, including 19 passenger motor vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, motorcycles, limit- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD10758-04-4A. 7628--A 2 1 ed use motorcycles, off-highway motorcycles, electric scooters, bicycles 2 with electric assist and/or bicycles. Such report shall include informa- 3 tion on the width and length of trucks, tractors, trailers and semi- 4 trailers, which are in excess of ninety-five inches in width or thirty- 5 four feet in length and which are involved in such accidents, whether 6 such accident took place in a work area and whether it was being oper- 7 ated with an overweight or overdimension permit. Such report shall 8 distinctly indicate and include information as to whether the inflatable 9 restraint system inflated and deployed. Nothing contained in this 10 subdivision shall be deemed to preclude a police officer from reporting 11 any other accident which, in the judgment of such police officer, would 12 be required to be reported to the commissioner by the operator of a 13 vehicle pursuant to section six hundred five of this article. 14 § 2. The opening paragraph and paragraph (a) of subdivision 1 of 15 section 603-a of the vehicle and traffic law, as amended by chapter 489 16 of the laws of 2017, are amended to read as follows: 17 In addition to the requirements of section six hundred three of this 18 article, whenever a motor vehicle, bicycle with electric assist, or 19 electric scooter accident results in serious physical injury or death to 20 a person, and such accident either is discovered by a police officer, or 21 reported to a police officer within five days after such accident 22 occurred, the police shall conduct an investigation of such accident. 23 (a) Such investigation shall be conducted for the purposes of making a 24 determination of the following: the facts and circumstances of the acci- 25 dent; the type or types of vehicles involved, including passenger motor 26 vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, motorcycles, limited use motorcy- 27 cles, off-highway motorcycles, electric scooters, bicycles with electric 28 assist, and/or bicycles; whether pedestrians were involved; the contrib- 29 uting factor or factors; whether it can be determined if a violation or 30 violations of this chapter occurred, and if so, the specific provisions 31 of this chapter which were violated and by whom; and, the cause of such 32 accident, where such cause can be determined. 33 § 3. Section 604 of the vehicle and traffic law is amended to read as 34 follows: 35 § 604. Reports; contents; preparation; distribution; filing. Reports 36 of accidents required under [the preceding section] sections six hundred 37 three and six hundred three-a of this article, or under the rules and 38 regulations of the commissioner, shall be upon forms prepared by [him] 39 the commissioner and contain such information as [he] the commissioner 40 shall prescribe; provided, however, that the commissioner shall provide 41 space on such forms to indicate the type or types of vehicles involved, 42 including passenger motor vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, motorcy- 43 cles, limited use motorcycles, off-highway motorcycles, electric scoot- 44 ers, bicycles with electric assist, and/or bicycles. Blank forms for 45 such reports shall be printed by the commissioner and a supply sent to 46 all city, town and village clerks and to the chief officer of every city 47 police department for general distribution and use as herein provided. 48 Reports of accidents, required under the preceding section, shall be 49 sent to and filed with the commissioner at the main office of the bureau 50 of motor vehicles in the city of Albany, except as otherwise provided by 51 the rules and regulations of the commissioner. 52 § 4. Subdivisions (b) and (c) of section 605 of the vehicle and traf- 53 fic law, subdivision (b) as added by chapter 254 of the laws of 1989, 54 and subdivision (c) as amended by chapter 161 of the laws of 1996, are 55 amended to read as follows:A. 7628--A 3 1 (b) Every person operating [a] an electric scooter or a bicycle which 2 is in any manner involved in an accident on a public highway in this 3 state in which any person is killed, other than the operator, or suffers 4 serious physical injury as defined pursuant to subdivision ten of 5 section 10.00 of the penal law, shall within ten days after such opera- 6 tor learns of the fact of such death or serious physical injury, report 7 the matter in writing to the commissioner. If such operator is phys- 8 ically incapable of making such report within ten days, he or she shall 9 make the report immediately upon recovery from the physical incapacity. 10 If such operator is an unemancipated minor who is incapable of making 11 such report for any reason, the parent or guardian of such operator 12 shall make such report within ten days after learning of the fact of 13 such accident. Every such operator of an electric scooter or a bicycle, 14 or parent or guardian of such unemancipated minor operator, shall make 15 such other and additional reports as the commissioner shall require. 16 (c) The report required by this section shall be made in such form and 17 number as the commissioner may prescribe. Such report shall include 18 information on the width and length of trucks, tractors, trailers and 19 semitrailers, which are in excess of ninety-five inches in width or 20 thirty-four feet in length and which are involved in such accidents, 21 whether such accident took place in a work area and whether it was being 22 operated with an overweight or over dimension permit. Such report shall 23 distinctly indicate and include information as to whether the inflatable 24 restraint system inflated and deployed. Such report shall include 25 information on the type or types of vehicles involved, including passen- 26 ger motor vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, motorcycles, limited use 27 motorcycles, off-highway motorcycles, electric scooters, bicycles with 28 electric assist, and/or bicycles. 29 § 5. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a 30 law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of 31 any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on 32 its effective date are authorized to be made and completed on or before 33 such date.