ENGROSSED

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 437

(By Senators Bowman, Anderson and Kessler)

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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;

reported March 4, 1998.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section seven, article six, chapter seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to allowing Class IV municipalities to employ radar devices for enforcing speeding laws; and qualification of operators.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section seven, article six, chapter seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. SPEED RESTRICTIONS.

ยง17C-6-7. Prima facie evidence of speed by devices employing microwaves; placing of signs relative to radar; operator qualifications.

(a) The speed of a motor vehicle may be proved by evidence obtained by use of any device designed to measure and indicate or record the speed of a moving object by means of microwaves, when such the evidence is obtained by members of the department of public safety, state police, by police officers of incorporated municipalities in classes one, two, and three and four, as defined in chapter eight-a sections two and three, article one, chapter eight of this code, and by the sheriff and his or her deputies of the several counties of the state. The evidence so obtained shall be accepted as prima facie evidence of the speed of such vehicle.
(b) The provisions of this section shall only apply where the operator of the device is a certified law-enforcement officer who has also been certified to operate said device by the national highway safety administration.
(c) In order to inform and educate the public generally that speed of motor vehicles operating within the state is being tested by radar mechanisms, the state road commission commissioner of highways shall locate and place suitable and informative stationary and movable signs at strategic points on and along highways in each county of the state giving notice to the public that such radar mechanisms are in use.