Requires the commissioner of motor vehicles to promulgate rules and regulations to require that every school bus be equipped with a stop-arm on each side of the bus regardless of seating capacity; prohibits the operation of a school bus on public highways without a functioning stop-arm on each side of such bus.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2500
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 21, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. GOUNARDES -- 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
every school bus to be equipped with a stop-arm on each side
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 21-c of section 375 of the vehicle and traffic
2 law, as amended by chapter 430 of the laws of 2001, is amended to read
3 as follows:
4 21-c. (a) The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of
5 transportation, shall promulgate rules and regulations for the use of
6 stop-arms on school buses which shall include provisions for a second
7 stop-arm to be located on the driver's side as close as is practical to
8 the rear corner of the bus. Every school bus designed with a capacity of
9 forty-five persons or more, and manufactured for use in this state on or
10 after January first, two thousand two shall be equipped with a second
11 stop-arm in compliance with such regulations.
12 (b) The commissioner shall further promulgate, in consultation with
13 the commissioner of transportation, rules and regulations to require
14 that every school bus, regardless of seating capacity, include a stop-
15 arm on each side of the bus. No school bus shall be operated or driven
16 upon the public highways of this state without a functioning stop-arm on
17 each side of such bus.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
19 which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition,
20 amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the
21 implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be
22 made and completed on or before such effective date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05199-01-5
