FIRST REGULAR SESSION
[PERFECTED]
HOUSE BILL NO. 120
91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE O'CONNOR.
Pre-filed December 12, 2000, and 1000 copies ordered printed.
Read 1st time January 3, 2001.
Read 2nd time January 4, 2001, and referred to the Committee on Motor Vehicle and Traffic Regulations, January 23, 2001.
Reported from the Committee on Motor Vehicle and Traffic Regulations, February 26, 2001, with recommendation that the bill Do Pass.
Taken up for Perfection March 27, 2001. Bill ordered Perfected and printed, as amended.
TED WEDEL, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal sections 302.173 and 307.173, RSMo 2000, relating to motor vehicle safety, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to the same subject, with penalty provisions.
Section A. Sections 302.173 and 307.173, RSMo 2000, are repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 302.173 and 307.173, to read as follows:
302.173. 1. Any applicant for a license, who does not possess a valid license issued pursuant to the laws of this state or any other state shall be examined as herein provided. Any person who has failed to renew such person's license on or before the date of its expiration or within six months thereafter must take the complete examination. Any active member of the armed forces, their adult dependents or any active member of the peace corps may apply for a renewal license without examination of any kind, unless otherwise required by sections 302.700 to 302.780, provided the renewal application shows that the previous license had not been suspended or revoked. Any person honorably discharged from the armed forces of the United States who held a valid license prior to being inducted may apply for a renewal license within sixty days after such person's honorable discharge without submitting to any examination of such person's ability to safely operate a motor vehicle over the highways of this state unless otherwise required by sections 302.700 to 302.780, other than the vision test provided in section 302.175, unless the facts set out in the renewal application or record of convictions on the expiring license, or the records of the director show that there is good cause to authorize the director to require the applicant to submit to the complete examination. No applicant for a renewal license shall be required to submit to any examination of his or her ability to safely operate a motor vehicle over the highways of this state unless otherwise required by sections 302.700 to 302.780 or regulations promulgated thereunder, other than a test of the applicant's ability to understand highway signs regulating, warning or directing traffic and the vision test provided in section 302.175, unless the facts set out in the renewal application or record of convictions on the expiring license, or the records of the director show that there is good cause to authorize the director to require the applicant to submit to the complete examination. The examination shall be made available in each county. Reasonable notice of the time and place of the examination shall be given the applicant by the person or officer designated to conduct it. The complete examination shall include a test of the applicant's natural or corrected vision as prescribed in section 302.175, the applicant's ability to understand highway signs regulating, warning or directing traffic, the applicant's practical knowledge of the traffic laws of this state, and an actual demonstration of ability to exercise due care in the operation of a motor vehicle of the classification for which the license is sought. When an applicant for a license has a valid license from a state which has requirements for issuance of a license comparable to the Missouri requirements, the director may waive the requirement of actual demonstration of ability to exercise due care in the operation of a motor vehicle. If the director has reasonable grounds to believe that an applicant is suffering from some known physical or mental ailment which ordinarily would interfere with the applicant's fitness to operate a motor vehicle safely upon the highways, the director may require that the examination include a physical or mental examination by a licensed physician of the applicant's choice, at the applicant's expense, to determine the fact. The director shall prescribe regulations to ensure uniformity in the examinations and in the grading thereof and shall prescribe and furnish all forms to the members of the highway patrol and to other persons authorized to conduct examinations as may be necessary to enable the officer or person to properly conduct the examination. The records of the examination shall be forwarded to the director who shall not issue any license hereunder if in the director's opinion the applicant is not qualified to operate a motor vehicle safely upon the highways of this state.
2. The director of revenue shall delegate the power to conduct the examinations required for a license or permit to any member of the highway patrol or any person employed by the highway patrol. The powers delegated to any examiner may be revoked at any time by the director of revenue upon notice.
3. Notwithstanding the requirements of subsections 1 and 2 of this section, the successful completion of a motorcycle rider training course approved pursuant to sections 302.133 to 302.138 shall constitute an actual demonstration of the person's ability to exercise due care in the operation of a motorcycle or motortricycle, and no further driving test shall be required to obtain a motorcycle or motortricycle license or endorsement.
307.173. 1. Except as provided in subsections 2 and 6 of this section, no person shall operate any motor vehicle registered in this state on any public highway or street of this state with any manufactured vision-reducing material applied to any portion of the motor vehicle's windshield, sidewings, or windows located immediately to the left and right of the driver which reduces visibility from within or without the motor vehicle. This section shall not prohibit labels, stickers, decalcomania, or informational signs on motor vehicles or the application of tinted or solar screening material to recreational vehicles as defined in section 700.010, RSMo, provided that such material does not interfere with the driver's normal view of the road. This section shall not prohibit factory installed tinted glass, the equivalent replacement thereof or tinting material applied to the upper portion of the motor vehicle's windshield which is normally tinted by the manufacturer of motor vehicle safety glass.
2. [A permit to] Any person may operate a motor vehicle with [a front sidewing vent or window] side and rear windows that [has] have a sun screening device, in conjunction with safety glazing material, that has a light transmission of thirty-five percent or more plus or minus three percent and a luminous reflectance of thirty-five percent or less plus or minus three percent [may be issued by the department of public safety to a person having a physical disorder requiring the use of such vision-reducing material. If, according to the permittee's physician, the physical disorder requires the use of a sun screening device which permits less light transmission and luminous reflectance than allowed under the requirements of this subsection, the limits of this subsection may be altered for that permittee in accordance with the physician's prescription. The director of the department of public safety shall promulgate rules and regulations for the issuance of the permit. The permit shall allow operation of the vehicle by immediate family members who are husband, wife and sons or daughters who reside in the household].
3. A motor vehicle in violation of this section shall not be approved during any motor vehicle safety inspection required pursuant to sections 307.350 to 307.390.
4. [No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under the authority of this chapter shall become effective unless it has been promulgated pursuant to the provisions of section 536.024, RSMo.] Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, RSMo, that is created under the authority delegated in this section shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all of the provisions of chapter 536, RSMo, and, if applicable, section 536.028, RSMo. This section and chapter 536, RSMo, are nonseverable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo, to review, to delay the effective date or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2001, shall be invalid and void.
5. Any person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a class C misdemeanor.
6. Any vehicle licensed with a historical license plate shall be exempt from the requirements of this section.
Missouri House of
Representatives