Bill Text: NY S06092 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relates to driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs, impairing substances or combined use of drugs and alcohol; defines the term "inhalant".

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - REFERRED TO TRANSPORTATION [S06092 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S06092-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6092

                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                      May 16, 2019
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by Sen. KAMINSKY -- 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 and the public  health  law,
          in relation to driving a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs or
          combined use of drugs and alcohol and defines the term inhalant

          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 119-c to read as follows:
     3    §  119-c.  Inhalant.    Any  substance set forth in subdivision one of
     4  section thirty-three hundred eighty of the public health  law  which  is
     5  used  by  smelling  or  inhaling such substance or the prohibited use of
     6  nitrous oxide  as  set  forth  in  subdivision  five  of  such  section;
     7  provided,  however,  that  inhalant shall not include any such substance
     8  which is inhaled for lawful medical or dental purposes.
     9    § 2. Subdivisions 4 and 4-a of section 1192 of the vehicle and traffic
    10  law, subdivision 4 as added by chapter 47 of the laws of 1988 and subdi-
    11  vision 4-a as added by chapter 732 of the laws of 2006, are  amended  to
    12  read as follows:
    13    4.  Driving while ability impaired by drugs. No person shall operate a
    14  motor vehicle while the person's ability to operate such a motor vehicle
    15  is impaired by the use of a drug or inhalant as defined in this chapter,
    16  or impaired by the voluntary ingestion or inhalation of any other chemi-
    17  cal, inhalant, pharmaceutical or other impairing substance  or  combina-
    18  tion  of  substances  to the extent the driver is incapable of employing
    19  the physical and mental abilities which he or she is expected to possess
    20  in order to operate a vehicle in a reasonable and prudent manner.
    21    4-a. Driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of drugs
    22  or of alcohol and any drug or drugs. No person  shall  operate  a  motor
    23  vehicle  while  the  person's  ability  to operate such motor vehicle is
    24  impaired by the combined influence of drugs and/or inhalants or of alco-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11547-01-9
        S. 6092                             2

     1  hol and any drug or drugs and/or inhalants or by the combined  influence
     2  of  alcohol  or  any  drug  or drugs and/or inhalants with any chemical,
     3  pharmaceutical, inhalant or other impairing substance or combination  of
     4  substances  to the extent the driver is incapable of employing the phys-
     5  ical and mental abilities which he or she  is  expected  to  possess  in
     6  order to operate a vehicle in a reasonable and prudent manner.
     7    §  3.  Paragraph  (b)  of  subdivision 1 of section 3380 of the public
     8  health law, as amended by chapter 234 of the laws of 1985, is amended to
     9  read as follows:
    10    (b) As used in this section hazardous inhalants shall mean and include
    11  the hydrocarbon difluoroethane and any of the preparations of  compounds
    12  containing one or more of the chemical compounds[;]: amyl nitrite, isoa-
    13  myl  nitrite,  butyl  nitrite,  isobutyl  nitrite, pentyl nitrite or any
    14  other [akyl] alkyl nitrite compound that is either designed to be  used,
    15  or commonly used, as an inhalant.
    16    §  4. Section 1192 of the vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding
    17  a new subdivision 13 to read as follows:
    18    13. It shall be an affirmative defense to a charge under  subdivisions
    19  four  and  four-a  of  this section that the operator suffered a medical
    20  emergency rather than being impaired by the substance or combination  of
    21  substances, provided, however, that no defense shall be available if any
    22  such ingested substance is contained in section thirty-three hundred six
    23  or section thirty-three hundred eighty of the public health law.
    24    § 5. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    25  it  shall  have become a law; provided, however, that this act shall not
    26  apply to any offense committed before such date.