Amd SS375, 301 & 304, add S1809-f, V & T L; add S92-h, St Fin L
Provides increased penalties for people who operate vehicles with tinted windows; provides a $250 surcharge that will be paid into a fund used to train and equip police officers; motor vehicles with tinted windows not allowed by law will not be issued a certificate of inspection.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2651
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 26, 2009
___________
Introduced by Sens. ADAMS, FOLEY, C. JOHNSON -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Trans-
portation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to increased
penalties for having illegally tinted windows; and to amend the state
finance law, in relation to a police officer training and equipment
fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "Police Officer
2 Timoshenko's law".
3 § 2. Subdivision 12-a of section 375 of the vehicle and traffic law,
4 as amended by chapter 148 of the laws of 1982, paragraphs (b) and (e) as
5 amended, paragraph (d) as added and paragraph (f) as relettered by chap-
6 ter 155 of the laws of 1991, paragraph (c) as amended by chapter 135 of
7 the laws of 1994 and paragraph (ff) as added by chapter 32 of the laws
8 of 1996, is amended to read as follows:
9 12-a. (a) Every motor vehicle, except a motorcycle, when driven or
10 operated upon a public highway, road or street shall be equipped with a
11 front windshield in a fixed and more or less upright position
12 constructed of safety glass as defined in subdivision fourteen of this
13 section and required by subdivisions eleven and twelve [hereof] of this
14 section. No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any sign or other
15 nontransparent material other than a certificate or paper required to be
16 displayed by law upon the front windshield or the sidewings or side
17 windows on either side forward of or adjacent to the operator's seat.
18 (b) No person shall operate any motor vehicle upon any public highway,
19 road or street:
20 (1) the front windshield of which is composed of, covered by or treat-
21 ed with any material which has a light transmittance of less than seven-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05679-01-9
S. 2651 2
1 ty percent unless such materials are limited to the uppermost six inches
2 of the windshield; or
3 (2) the sidewings or side windows of which on [either side forward of
4 or adjacent to the operator's seat] any portion of the vehicle are
5 composed of, covered by or treated with any material which has a light
6 transmittance of less than seventy percent; or
7 (3) [if it is classified as a station wagon, sedan, hardtop, coupe,
8 hatchback or convertible and any rear side window has a light transmit-
9 tance of less than seventy percent; or
10 (4)] the rear window of which is composed of, covered by or treated
11 with any material which has a light transmittance of less than seventy
12 percent. [A rear window may have a light transmittance of less than
13 seventy percent if the vehicle is equipped with side mirrors on both
14 sides of the vehicle so adjusted that the driver thereof shall have a
15 clear and full view of the road and condition of traffic behind such
16 vehicle.]
17 (c) Any person required for medical reasons to be shielded from the
18 direct rays of the sun and/or any person operating a motor vehicle
19 belonging to such person or in which such person is an habitual passen-
20 ger shall be exempt from the provisions of subparagraphs one and two of
21 paragraph (b) of this subdivision provided the commissioner has granted
22 an exemption and notice of such exemption is affixed to the vehicle as
23 directed by the commissioner. The applicant for such exemption must
24 provide a physician's statement with the reason for the exemption, the
25 name of the individual with a medically necessary condition operating or
26 transported in the vehicle, the specific condition involved, and the
27 minimum level of light transmission required. The commissioner shall
28 only authorize exemptions where the medical condition certified by the
29 physician is contained on a list of medical conditions prepared by the
30 commissioner of health pursuant to subdivision sixteen of section two
31 hundred six of the public health law. If such [such] exemption is
32 granted, the commissioner shall make a record thereof and shall distrib-
33 ute a sufficiently noticeable sticker to the applicant to be attached to
34 any window so shielded or altered pursuant to such exemption.
35 (d) The commissioner may test any window for a person who has been
36 charged with violating this subdivision. If such window is found to be
37 in conformity with this subdivision, a small label attesting to the
38 conformity shall be affixed to the window tested.
39 (e) On and after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-two, no person
40 shall manufacture, sell, offer for sale, equip or operate a motor vehi-
41 cle in this state in violation of the provisions of this subdivision,
42 except that a person may operate a nineteen hundred ninety-one or earli-
43 er model year vehicle without violating this subdivision if the windows
44 on said vehicle were in conformity with this subdivision as it existed
45 on December thirty-first, nineteen hundred ninety-one.
46 (f) The commissioner shall make such rules and regulations as he shall
47 deem necessary to carry out the provisions of this subdivision.
48 [(ff)] (gg) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section or any
49 other general, special or local law, charter, administrative code, ordi-
50 nance, rule or regulation to the contrary, any person operating a motor
51 vehicle in a burial or funeral procession while travelling to or from a
52 funeral, interment or cremation may place a funeral sign no larger than
53 eight and one half by fourteen inches in any window of such vehicle, as
54 long as such sign when so placed will not prevent such person from
55 having a clear and full view of the road and the condition of traffic
56 behind such vehicle.
S. 2651 3
1 § 3. Subdivision (c) of section 301 of the vehicle and traffic law is
2 amended by adding a new paragraph 4 to read as follows:
3 (4) Such inspection shall also include testing the light transmittance
4 of every window on the vehicle to ensure that such windows comply with
5 the provisions of subdivision twelve-a of section three hundred seven-
6 ty-five of this title.
7 § 4. Subdivision (a) of section 304 of the vehicle and traffic law, as
8 amended by chapter 608 of the laws of 1993, is amended to read as
9 follows:
10 (a) No certificate or certificates of inspection shall be issued by an
11 official inspection station until the mechanisms and other equipment, as
12 specified in subdivision (c) of section three hundred one [(c)] of this
13 [chapter] article, of the motor vehicle inspected are in proper and safe
14 condition and comply with the rules and regulations of the commissioner
15 and with the laws of this state and the light transmittance of windows
16 of such motor vehicle conform with paragraph four of subdivision (c) of
17 section three hundred one of this article and the emissions of such
18 motor vehicle conform with subdivision (d) of section three hundred one
19 of this article and regulations promulgated pursuant thereto at the time
20 the certificate is issued.
21 § 5. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section
22 1809-f to read as follows:
23 § 1809-f. Mandatory surcharge for violation of window tinting. 1.
24 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, whenever proceedings in a
25 court of this state result in a conviction pursuant to subdivision
26 twelve-a of section three hundred seventy-five of this chapter, there
27 shall be levied, in addition to any fine, sentence or other surcharge
28 required or permitted by law, an additional surcharge of two hundred
29 fifty dollars.
30 2. The additional surcharge provided for in subdivision one of this
31 section shall be paid to the clerk of the court that rendered the
32 conviction. Within the first ten days of the month following collection
33 of the surcharge the collecting authority shall determine the amount of
34 surcharge collected and it shall pay such money to the state comptroller
35 who shall deposit such money in the state treasury pursuant to section
36 one hundred twenty-one of the state finance law to the credit of the
37 police officer training and equipment fund established pursuant to
38 section ninety-two-h of the state finance law.
39 3. The provisions of subdivision three of section two hundred twenty-
40 seven, subdivision four-a of section five hundred ten, and subdivision
41 three of section five hundred fourteen of this chapter governing actions
42 which may be taken for failure to pay a fine or penalty shall be appli-
43 cable to the additional surcharge imposed pursuant to this section.
44 § 6. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 92-h to
45 read as follows:
46 § 92-h. Police officer training and equipment fund. 1. There is hereby
47 established in the joint custody of the state comptroller and the
48 commissioner of taxation and finance a fund to be known as the police
49 officer training and equipment fund.
50 2. Such fund shall consist of all fines and forfeitures collected
51 pursuant to section eighteen hundred nine-f of the vehicle and traffic
52 law and required to be deposited to this fund, and all other moneys
53 credited or transferred thereto from any other fund or source pursuant
54 to law.
55 3. Moneys of the fund shall be available for the payment of state aid
56 through appropriation by the legislature for the purpose of training
S. 2651 4
1 police officers on the dangers of approaching vehicles with tinted
2 windows and other issues relating to protecting the officers' lives.
3 Such moneys shall also be available for the payment of state aid through
4 appropriation by the legislature for the purpose of providing equipment
5 to police officers throughout this state to be used to provide safety
6 for such officers when conducting routine traffic stops.
7 § 7. This act shall take effect immediately.
