COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 682


(By Senators Wooton, Ross, McCabe, Kessler, Fanning, Edgell, McKenzie, Jackson, Snyder, Facemyer, Bowman, Minard, Sprouse, Boley, Tomblin, Mr. President, Hunter, Chafin, Sharpe, Anderson, Helmick, Prezioso, Unger, Bailey, Oliverio, Mitchell, Love, Rowe, Redd, Plymale and Minear)

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[Originating in the Committee on Transportation;
reported February 26, 2002.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact sections two, three and thirty, article one, chapter seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; to further amend said article by adding thereto two new sections, designated sections sixty-five and sixty-six; and to amend article ten of said chapter by adding thereto a new section, designated section two-a, all relating to the definitions of motorized wheelchair and electric personal assistive mobility device; and requiring that certain operators yield to pedestrians.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two, three and thirty, article one, chapter seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; that said article be further amended by adding thereto two new sections, designated sections sixty-five and sixty-six; and that article ten of said chapter be further amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section two-a, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. WORDS AND PHRASES DEFINED.
§17C-1-2. Vehicle.
"Vehicle" means every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, except devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks or motorized wheelchairs or an electric personal assistive mobility device.
§17C-1-3. Motor vehicle.
"Motor vehicle" means every vehicle which is self-propelled and every vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires, but not operated upon rails, except motorized wheel chairs or an electric personal assistive mobility device.
§17C-1-30. Pedestrian.
"Pedestrian" means any person afoot or a person operating a motorized wheelchair or an electric personal assistive mobility device.
§17C-1-65. Motorized wheelchair.
"Motorized wheelchair" means any self-propelled vehicle designed for, and used by, a person with disabilities that is incapable of a speed in excess of eight mph.
§17C-1-66. Electric personal assistive mobility device.
"Electric personal assistive mobility device" or "EPAMD" means a self-balancing, two nontandem wheeled device designed to transport only one person with an electric propulsion system with average power of 750 watts (one h.p.), whose maximum speed on a paved level surface, when powered solely by such a propulsion system while ridden by an operator who weighs one hundred seventy pounds, is less than twenty mph.
 ARTICLE 10. PEDESTRIANS' RIGHTS AND DUTIES.
§17C-10-2a. Pedestrians' right-of-way to electric personal assistive mobility devices.

The operator of an electric personal assistive mobility device, as defined in article one, section sixty-six of this chapter, must yield the right-of-way in all circumstances to a pedestrian.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish the definitions of motorized wheelchairs and electric personal assistive mobility devices, to allow for their use, and to require that operators of electric personal assistive mobility devices yield the right-of-way to pedestrians.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
§§17C-1-65 and 66; and §17C-10-2a are new; therefore, strike- throughs and underscoring have been omitted.)