Friday, September 5, 2008
The General Assembly is not in session.
Tracking Virginia’s General Assembly
since 2007.
HB158: School buses; increases civil penalty for improperly passing.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 46.2-844 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 46.2-844. Passing stopped school buses; penalty; prima facie evidence.
The driver of a motor vehicle approaching from any direction a
clearly marked school bus which is stopped on any highway, private road or
school driveway for the purpose of taking on or discharging children, the
elderly, or mentally or physically handicapped persons, who, in violation of §
46.2-859, fails to stop and remain stopped until all such persons are clear of
the highway, private road or school driveway, is subject to a civil penalty of $250 $500 and any prosecution shall be instituted and conducted in the
same manner as prosecutions for traffic infractions.
A prosecution or proceeding under § 46.2-859 is a bar to a prosecution or proceeding under this section for the same act and a prosecution or proceeding under this section is a bar to a prosecution or proceeding under § 46.2-859 for the same act.
In any prosecution for which a summons charging a violation of this section was issued within ten days of the alleged violation, proof that the motor vehicle described in the summons was operated in violation of this section, together with proof that the defendant was at the time of such violation the registered owner of the vehicle, as required by Chapter 6 (§ 46.2-600 et seq.) of this title shall give rise to a rebuttable presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle was the person who operated the vehicle at the place where, and for the time during which, the violation occurred.
The testimony of the school bus driver, the supervisor of school buses or a law-enforcement officer that the vehicle was yellow, conspicuously marked as a school bus, and equipped with warning devices as prescribed in § 46.2-1090 is prima facie evidence that the vehicle is a school bus.
Additional Data
Explanation
This is the actual text of the bill — the legislation itself. Generally this is amending existing law, proposing the addition or removal of words from laws that are already on the books.
Words that are highlighted in yellow are
proposed additions, and words that are crossed out in
red are proposed removals.
The numbers with the § symbol before them are references to existing laws, and if you click on them they’ll take you to that part of the law on the state's website.