Bill Text: NY A08933 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Limits the liability of operators and owners of first-response emergency vehicles for monetary penalties for certain traffic violations committed while responding to a medical emergency in a city with a population of one million or more persons.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-07-21 - signed chap.407 [A08933 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-A08933-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8933

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 19, 2022
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  EICHENSTEIN -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Transportation

        AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to limiting the
          liability of operators and owners of first-response emergency vehicles
          for monetary penalties for certain traffic infractions committed while
          responding to a medical emergency in a city with a population  of  one
          million or more persons

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 227 of the vehicle and traffic law  is  amended  by
     2  adding a new subdivision 7 to read as follows:
     3    7.  (a) In a city having a population of one million or more, at every
     4  hearing for the adjudication of a traffic  infraction,  as  provided  by
     5  this  article, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the operator
     6  or owner of a first-response emergency vehicle involved in  the  commis-
     7  sion  of  a  traffic infraction for exceeding the speed limit, running a
     8  red light or driving in a bus lane is not liable for a monetary  penalty
     9  for  the  commission of such infraction if such operator or owner of the
    10  first-response emergency vehicle provides the hearing officer with:
    11    (i) a signed and affirmed affidavit attesting that the operator of the
    12  vehicle at the time of  the  infraction  is  a  medically-trained  first
    13  responder and that the traffic infraction occurred during the use of the
    14  first-response emergency vehicle to respond to a medical emergency call;
    15  and
    16    (ii)  documentation  supporting  the dispatch of the medical emergency
    17  call and the dispatch of the operator and vehicle to the  scene  of  the
    18  medical emergency. If an owner or operator of a first-response emergency
    19  vehicle is stopped by an officer while responding to a medical emergency
    20  call, such owner or operator should not be liable for a monetary penalty
    21  and  points  on their license for an infraction that occurred during the
    22  use of the first-response emergency vehicle  to  respond  to  a  medical
    23  emergency call.
    24    (b)  As  used  in this subdivision, "first-response emergency vehicle"
    25  includes ambulances as defined in section one hundred-b of this  chapter

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13830-05-2
        A. 8933                             2

     1  and  personally-owned  vehicles  utilized as emergency ambulance service
     2  vehicles as defined in section one hundred fifteen-c of this chapter  in
     3  accordance with the regulations of the department of health.
     4    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.