Requires motor carriers that operate charter buses to have pre-trip safety briefings on the mandatory use of safety belts by passengers and fines for such violations.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8691
IN SENATE
January 7, 2026
___________
Introduced by Sen. COONEY -- 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 pre-trip
safety briefings for motor carriers that operate charter buses
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 9 of section 509-m of the vehicle and traffic
2 law, as added by section 9 of part K of chapter 58 of the laws of 2024,
3 is amended to read as follows:
4 9. (a) In coordination with the commissioner of transportation and the
5 superintendent of state police, establish and regularly update the form
6 and content of a pre-trip safety briefing for motor carriers that oper-
7 ate altered motor vehicles commonly referred to as "stretch limousines",
8 designed to carry nine or more passengers including the driver pursuant
9 to operating authority issued by the commissioner of transportation and
10 for motor carriers that operate charter buses pursuant to operating
11 authority issued by the commissioner of transportation, which motor
12 carriers shall provide to passengers prior to transporting such passen-
13 gers for hire in such stretch limousines and such charter buses.
14 (b) Pre-trip safety briefings conducted for such stretch limousines
15 and charter buses shall include, but not be limited to, the mandatory
16 use of safety belts by passengers when passenger seat positions are
17 equipped with safety belts approved by and conforming to standards
18 established by the commissioner and the civil fine for violations as
19 provided by section twelve hundred twenty-nine-c of this chapter.
20 (c) For the purposes of this subdivision, the term "charter bus" shall
21 mean a bus transporting passengers for compensation in a chartered party
22 and the term "chartered party" shall mean a group of persons who, pursu-
23 ant to a common purpose and under a single contract and at a fixed
24 charge, have acquired exclusive use of a bus to travel together as a
25 group to a specific destination or for a particular itinerary either
26 agreed upon in advance or modified after having left the place of origin
27 by such group.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14058-01-5
S. 8691 2
1 § 2. Paragraph (d) of subdivision 4 of section 1229-c of the vehicle
2 and traffic law, as added by chapter 434 of the laws of 2024, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 (d) "charter bus" shall mean (i) a bus manufactured or assembled on or
5 after November twenty-eighth, two thousand sixteen transporting passen-
6 gers for compensation in a chartered party, and (ii) a bus manufactured
7 or assembled prior to November twenty-eighth, two thousand sixteen
8 transporting passengers for compensation in a chartered party which is
9 equipped with at least one safety belt for each passenger seat position
10 approved by and conforming to standards established by the commissioner;
11 and
12 § 3. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a
13 law.
