Bill Text: NY S00645 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires that signs posted for highway work zone traffic control, including but not limited to highway construction zones, maintenance work areas, or restricted highways, be promptly covered or removed whenever such sign or signs are not applicable.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - REFERRED TO TRANSPORTATION [S00645 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-S00645-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           645

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                       (Prefiled)

                                     January 6, 2021
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen. SANDERS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation

        AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in  relation  to  requiring
          the  removal  or  covering  of  inapplicable highway work zone traffic
          control signs

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

     1    Section  1.  The  vehicle  and  traffic law is amended by adding a new
     2  section 1686 to read as follows:
     3    § 1686. Work zone signs. Any sign or signs  placed  for  highway  work
     4  zone  traffic  control,  including,  but not limited to, those placed in
     5  highway construction or maintenance work areas, or on  restricted  high-
     6  ways,  shall  be promptly covered or removed whenever such sign or signs
     7  are not applicable, as determined by the state or local authority having
     8  jurisdiction thereon.  For the purposes of this  subdivision,  the  term
     9  "restricted highway" shall mean a highway designated as such pursuant to
    10  section one hundred four-a of the highway law.
    11    § 2. Section 155 of the vehicle and traffic law, as amended by chapter
    12  157 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
    13    §  155.  Traffic  infraction.  The  violation of any provision of this
    14  chapter, except articles forty-seven and forty-eight and section sixteen
    15  hundred eighty-six of this chapter, or of  any  law,  ordinance,  order,
    16  rule  or  regulation  regulating  traffic  which is not declared by this
    17  chapter or other law of this state to be a misdemeanor or  a  felony.  A
    18  traffic  infraction  is  not a crime and the punishment imposed therefor
    19  shall not be deemed for any purpose a penal or criminal  punishment  and
    20  shall  not affect or impair the credibility as a witness or otherwise of
    21  any person convicted thereof. This definition shall be  retroactive  and
    22  shall  apply  to all acts and violations heretofore committed where such
    23  acts and violations would, if committed subsequent to the taking  effect

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05606-01-1
        S. 645                              2

     1  of  this  section,  be  included within the meaning of the term "traffic
     2  infraction" as herein defined. Except in those portions of Suffolk coun-
     3  ty for which a district court has been established,  outside  of  cities
     4  having  a  population  in  excess of one million in which administrative
     5  tribunals have heretofore been established, courts and judicial officers
     6  heretofore having jurisdiction over such violations shall continue to do
     7  so and for such purpose such violations shall be deemed misdemeanors and
     8  all provisions of law relating to misdemeanors  except  as  provided  in
     9  section  eighteen  hundred  five  of  this  chapter and except as herein
    10  otherwise expressly provided shall apply except that no jury trial shall
    11  be allowed for traffic infractions. In those portions of Suffolk  county
    12  for  which  a district court has been established and in cities having a
    13  population in excess of one million in  which  administrative  tribunals
    14  have  heretofore been established, the criminal courts of such cities or
    15  portions of Suffolk county in which a district  court  has  been  estab-
    16  lished  shall  have  jurisdiction  to  hear  and determine any complaint
    17  alleging a violation constituting  a  traffic  infraction,  except  that
    18  administrative  tribunals  heretofore  established  in  such  cities  or
    19  portions of Suffolk county in which a district  court  has  been  estab-
    20  lished  shall  have  jurisdiction to hear and determine any charge of an
    21  offense which is a traffic infraction, except parking, standing or stop-
    22  ping. In cities having a population in excess of two hundred thousand in
    23  which administrative tribunals have heretofore been established, and any
    24  such administrative tribunal established by the  city  of  Yonkers,  the
    25  city  of  Peekskill,  or the city of Syracuse, such tribunals shall have
    26  jurisdiction to hear and determine any charge of an offense which  is  a
    27  parking, standing or stopping violation. Any fine imposed by an adminis-
    28  trative  tribunal shall be a civil penalty. For purposes of arrest with-
    29  out a warrant, pursuant to article one hundred  forty  of  the  criminal
    30  procedure law, a traffic infraction shall be deemed an offense.
    31    §  3.  This  act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
    32  have become a law.