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S05684 Summary:

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S05684 Text:

 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                         5684--A
            Cal. No. 706
 
                               2013-2014 Regular Sessions
 
                    IN SENATE
 
                                      June 4, 2013
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced by Sens. KLEIN, ESPAILLAT, HASSELL-THOMPSON, HOYLMAN, PARKER,
          SAVINO  --  read  twice  and  ordered  printed, and when printed to be
          committed to the Committee on Cities -- recommitted to  the  Committee
          on Cities in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- reported favora-

          bly  from  said  committee,  ordered to first report, amended on first
          report, ordered to a second report and  ordered  reprinted,  retaining
          its place in the order of second report
 
        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  administrative code of the city of New York, in
          relation to New York city transit omnibus safety requirements
 
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
 
     1    Section  1. Legislative findings. The occupation of driving an omnibus
     2  available to the general public has become increasingly dangerous to bus
     3  drivers employed by the New York city transit authority and its  subsid-
     4  iaries. There has been an increase in the number of bus drivers who have
     5  become  victims  of  assaults,  verbal  attacks,  spitting, menacing and
     6  threats at the hands of bus riders. Unlike the work environment of tran-

     7  sit employees deployed on the subway trains,  there  is  no  discernible
     8  police presence on these buses, and the driver is relatively defenseless
     9  while operating a bus on a congested urban street, against an aggressive
    10  bus passenger seeking to harm him or her.
    11    The  legislature finds that a safety partition between the bus drivers
    12  and the passengers on the vehicle can be an effective deterrent  to  any
    13  harm  being  inflicted  on the transit worker. Such partitions have been
    14  highly effective in protecting taxi cab  and  livery  car  drivers  from
    15  aggressive  acts by passengers inside their vehicles. A similar require-
    16  ment protecting bus operators should  be  equally  effective  and  would
    17  promote  public  safety  for  the  riding public on mass transit surface
    18  vehicles.
    19    The legislature also finds that current emergency communication proto-

    20  cols of the New York city transit authority and its subsidiaries are not
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD09645-02-4
        S. 5684--A                          2
 
     1  operating at an optimum efficiency level. Nearly all buses are currently
     2  equipped with a silent alarm mechanism which alerts the transit authori-
     3  ty's command center that an emergency exists and also with a GPS  device
     4  which  can  apprise  the command center of the location of the bus. More
     5  meaningful information and more importantly, a more timely  intervention
     6  by  first  responders  and transit supervisors, could be conveyed if the
     7  two existing devices worked in tandem with one another.  That the  emer-

     8  gency alarm be synchronized with the GPS device so that when it is acti-
     9  vated  it can simultaneously convey the location of the bus sounding the
    10  alarm. The legislature finds these  two  common  sense  initiatives  can
    11  significantly  improve the safety on mass transit buses operating within
    12  New York city at a very modest cost.
    13    § 2. The administrative code of the city of New  York  is  amended  by
    14  adding a new section 10-172 to read as follows:
    15    §  10-172 New York city transit omnibus safety requirements. a.  Defi-
    16  nitions. 1. The term "omnibus" or "bus" shall mean a mechanized  vehicle
    17  providing  mass transit surface service to the public owned, operated or
    18  leased by the transit authority.
    19    2. The term "partition" shall mean an "L" shaped  enclosure  around  a

    20  bus  operator, consisting in whole or in part of plexiglass at least one
    21  inch in thickness or some other rigid transparent substance of equal  or
    22  greater strength, that will have a hinged door opening to the right of a
    23  seated bus operator to allow for easy ingress and egress.
    24    3.  The term "silent emergency alarm" shall mean a device currently in
    25  use on omnibuses deployed by the transit authority that will allow a bus
    26  operator to surreptitiously alert the command  center  of  such  transit
    27  authority  of  a  circumstance or condition constituting an emergency in
    28  the judgment of the operator.
    29    4. The term "bus GPS device" shall mean a device currently in  use  on
    30  omnibuses  deployed  by  the transit authority, that when activated, can

    31  impart the exact location of the omnibus to the command center  of  such
    32  transit authority.
    33    5.  The  term "transit authority" shall mean the New York city transit
    34  authority and any of its subsidiaries  operating  surface  mass  transit
    35  vehicles within New York city.
    36    b.  The  transit  authority  shall not acquire or put into service any
    37  omnibus after the effective date of this section, which is not  equipped
    38  with a partition designed and sufficient to protect the operator of such
    39  omnibus  from  attacks on his or her person and is also equipped with an
    40  easy to access silent emergency alarm to  the  command  center  of  such
    41  transit  authority  which  when activated, will simultaneously cause the

    42  bus GPS device to signal the precise location of  the  omnibus  emitting
    43  the silent emergency alarm.
    44    c.  Within one year of the effective date of this section, the transit
    45  authority shall retrofit one-fifth of the total omnibuses it deploys for
    46  mass transit service within New York city with a partition, and for each
    47  consecutive year thereafter a like percentage of its bus fleet shall  be
    48  retrofitted  with a partition, so that upon completion of the fifth year
    49  after the effective date of this section the entire fleet  of  omnibuses
    50  operated  by  the  transit  authority  shall have a protective partition
    51  installed to protect the bus operator.  During  any  year  when  only  a
    52  partial  number  of  buses  are  equipped with a partition, decisions to

    53  deploy buses equipped with such barriers on any  route  of  the  transit
    54  authority will be made by the bus operation action committee in order to
    55  prioritize deployment on the routes that have historically been the most
    56  dangerous to bus operators.
        S. 5684--A                          3
 
     1    d.  Within one year of the effective date of this section, the transit
     2  authority shall retrofit one-half of the total omnibuses it deploys  for
     3  mass  transit service within New York city with a silent emergency alarm
     4  that is synchronized with its  existing  bus  GPS  device  so  that  the
     5  location of a bus emitting the alarm is immediately known by the command
     6  center  of  the  transit authority, and in the next consecutive year the

     7  remainder of the fleet of omnibuses of the transit authority shall be so
     8  equipped.
     9    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.