Senate Bill No. 635
(By Senator Hunter)
____________
[Introduced February 23, 2004; referred to the Committee on
Transportation; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
____________
A BILL to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §17C-3-5a, relating
to providing that a driver of a motorcycle, encountering a
traffic-control signal exhibiting a red light that utilizes a
vehicle detection device which is inoperative due to the size
of the motorcycle may proceed with caution; and providing that
the mere belief that a traffic-control signal was inoperative
due to an inoperative vehicle detection device, when in fact
that was not the case, is not a defense to running a red
light.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §17C-3-5a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 3. TRAFFIC SIGNS, SIGNALS AND MARKINGS.
§17C-3-5a. Motorcycle stopped at traffic-control signal utilizing
inoperable vehicle detection device.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the
driver of a motorcycle approaching an intersection, which is
controlled
by a traffic-control signal utilizing a vehicle
detection device that is inoperative due to the size of the
motorcycle, shall come to a full and complete stop at the
intersection and, after exercising due care, may proceed with
caution when it is safe to do so.
(b) It is not a defense to a violation of subsection (c),
section five of this article that the driver of a motorcycle
proceeded under the belief that a traffic-control signal utilized
a vehicle detection device or was inoperative due to the size of
the motorcycle when the signal did not utilize a vehicle detection
device or, in fact, was not inoperative due to the size of the
motorcycle.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
provide that a driver of
a motorcycle, when encountering a traffic control signal,
displaying a red light, which signal utilizes a vehicle detection
device which is inoperative due to the size of the motorcycle, may
proceed through the traffic signal, though it is red. The bill
also provides that the mere belief that a traffic-control signal
was inoperative due to an inoperative vehicle detection device,
when in fact it was not, is not a defense to running a red light.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.