H. B. 4514

(By Delegates Coleman, Amores, Browning,
Warner, Leach, Stemple and Craig)
[Introduced February 18, 2002; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]

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; and to further amend said article by adding thereto two new sections, designated sections sixty-five and sixty-six, all relating to the definition of motorized wheelchair and electric personal assistive mobility device.

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; and that said article be further amended by adding thereto two new sections, designated sections sixty-five and sixty-six, 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.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish the definitions of motorized wheelchairs and Electric Personal Assistive Mobility Devices, and to allow for their use.

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 are new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.