GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2001
S	3
SENATE BILL 600
Transportation Committee Substitute Adopted 4/23/01
Third Edition Engrossed 4/25/01

Short Title:	MV Technical Changes.	()	
Sponsors:	     	
Referred to:	     	
March 22, 2001

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO MAKE VARIOUS TECHNICAL AND OTHER CHANGES TO THE MOTOR VEHICLE STATUTES. 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 20‑4.01(12a) reads as rewritten:
"(12a)	Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR). – The value specified by the manufacturer as the maximum loaded weight a vehicle is capable of safely hauling. The GVWR of a combination vehicle is the GVWR of the power unit plus the GVWR of the towed unit or units. When a vehicle is determined by an enforcement officer to be structurally altered in any way from the manufacturer's original design in an attempt to increase the hauling capacity of the vehicle, the GVWR of that vehicle will then be determined by the license weight or the total weight of the vehicle or combination of vehicles for the purpose of enforcing this Chapter."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 20‑30(6) reads as rewritten:
"(6)	To make a color photocopy or otherwise make a color reproduction of a drivers license, learner's permit, or special identification card which has been color-photocopied or otherwise reproduced in color, unless such color photocopy or other color reproduction was authorized by the Commissioner. It shall be lawful to make a black and white photocopy of a drivers license, learner's permit, or special identification card or otherwise make a black and white reproduction of a drivers license, learner's permit, or special identification card."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 20‑63(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	Every license plate shall have displayed upon it the registration number assigned to the vehicle for which it is issued, the name of the State of North Carolina, which may be abbreviated, and the year number for which it is issued or the date of expiration. A plate issued for a commercial vehicle, as defined in G.S. 20‑4.2(1), and weighing 26,001 pounds or more, must bear the word "commercial," unless the plate is a special registration plate authorized in G.S. 20‑79.4 or the commercial vehicle is a trailer or is licensed for 6,000 pounds or less. The plate issued for vehicles licensed for 7,000 pounds through 26,000 pounds must bear the word "weighted".
A registration plate issued by the Division for a private passenger vehicle or for a private hauler vehicle licensed for 6,000 pounds or less, other than a Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park special registration plate, shall be a "First in Flight" plate. A "First in Flight" plate shall have the words "First in Flight" printed at the top of the plate above all other letters and numerals. The background of the plate shall depict the Wright Brothers biplane flying over Kitty Hawk Beach, with the plane flying slightly upward and to the right."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 20‑101 reads as rewritten:
"§ 20‑101.  Certain business vehicles to be marked.
A motor vehicle that is subject to 49 C.F.R. Part 390, the federal motor carrier safety regulations, shall be marked as required by that Part.
A motor vehicle that is not subject to those regulations, has a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds, but less than 26,001 pounds, and is used in intrastate commerce, and is not a farm vehicle, as further described in G.S. 20‑118 (c)(4), (c)(5), or (c)(12), shall have the name of the owner printed on the side of the vehicle in letters not less than three inches in height.
A motor vehicle that is subject to regulation by the North Carolina Utilities Commission shall be marked as required by that Commission and as otherwise required by this section."
"SECTION 5.  G.S. 20-116(g) reads as rewritten:
"(g)	(1)	No vehicle shall be driven or moved on any highway unless the vehicle is constructed and loaded to prevent any of its load from falling, blowing, dropping, sifting, leaking, or otherwise escaping therefrom, and the vehicle shall not contain any holes, cracks, or openings through which any of its load may escape.  However, sand may be dropped for the purpose of securing traction, or water or other substance may be sprinkled, dumped, or spread on a roadway in cleaning or maintaining the roadway.
(2)	Trucks, trailers or other vehicles when loaded with rock, gravel, stone or any other similar substance that could fall, blow, leak, sift or drop shall not be driven or moved on any highway unless the height of the load against all four walls does not extend above a horizontal line six inches below their tops when loaded at the loading  point and the load shall be securely covered by tarpaulin or some other suitable covering to prevent any of its load from falling, dropping, sifting, leaking, blowing, or otherwise escaping therefrom.  This subdivision does not apply to a vehicle licensed for 7,500 pounds or less gross vehicle weight.
(3)	This section shall not be applicable to or in any manner restrict the transportation of seed cotton, of poultry or livestock or silage or other feed grain used in the feeding of poultry or livestock."
SECTION 6.  G.S. 20‑118(c)(14) reads as rewritten:
"(14)	Subsections (b) and (e) of this section do not apply to a vehicle that meets all of the following conditions:
a.	Is hauling aggregates from a distribution yard or a State‑permitted production site within a North Carolina county contiguous to the North Carolina State border to a destination in another state adjacent to that county as verified by a weight ticket in the driver's possession and available for inspection by enforcement personnel.
b.	Does not operate on an interstate highway or posted bridge.
c.	Does not exceed 69,850 pounds gross vehicle weight and 53,850 pounds per axle grouping for tri‑axle vehicles. For purposes of this subsection, a tri‑axle vehicle is a single power unit vehicle with a three consecutive axle group on which the respective distance between any two consecutive axles of the group, measured longitudinally center to center to the nearest foot, does not exceed eight feet. For purposes of this subsection, the tolerance provisions of subsection (h) of this section do not apply and vehicles must be licensed in accordance with G.S. 20-88.
d.	All other enforcement provisions of this Article remain applicable."
SECTION 7.  G.S. 20‑118.1 reads as rewritten:
"§ 20‑118.1.  Officers may weigh vehicles and require overloads to be removed.
A law enforcement officer may stop and weigh a vehicle to determine if the vehicle's weight is in compliance with the vehicle's declared gross weight and the weight limits set in this Part. The officer may require the driver of the vehicle to drive to a scale located within five miles of where the officer stopped the vehicle.
Any person operating a truck must enter a permanent weigh station or temporary inspection or weigh site as directed by duly erected signs or an electronic transponder for the purpose of  being electronically screened for compliance, or weighed, or inspected.
If the vehicle's weight exceeds the amount allowable, the officer may detain the vehicle until the overload has been removed. Any property removed from a vehicle because the vehicle was overloaded is the responsibility of the owner or operator of the vehicle. The State is not liable for damage to or loss of the removed property.
Failure to permit a vehicle to be weighed or to remove an overload is a misdemeanor of the Class set in G.S. 20‑176. An officer must weigh a vehicle with a scale that has been approved by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services."
SECTION 8.  G.S. 20‑142.3 reads as rewritten:
"§ 20‑142.3.  Certain vehicles must stop at railroad grade crossing.
(a)	Before crossing at grade any track or tracks of a railroad, the driver of any school bus, any activity bus, any motor vehicle carrying passengers for compensation, any property‑hauling motor vehicle carrying hazardous materials, any commercial motor vehicle that the driver is required to possess a commercial drivers license to operate and any motor vehicle with a capacity of 16 or more persons shall stop the vehicle within 50 feet but not less than 15 feet from the nearest rail of the railroad. While stopped, the driver shall listen and look in both directions along the track for any approaching train and shall not proceed until the driver can do so safely. Upon proceeding, the driver of the vehicle shall cross the track in a gear that allows the driver to cross the track without changing gears and the driver shall not change gears while crossing the track or tracks.
(b)	Except for school buses and activity buses, the provisions of this section shall not require the driver of a vehicle to stop:
(1)	At railroad tracks used exclusively for industrial switching purposes within a business district.
(2)	At a railroad grade crossing which a police officer or crossing flagman directs traffic to proceed.
(3)	At a railroad grade crossing protected by a gate or flashing signal designed to stop traffic upon the approach of a train, when the gate or flashing signal does not indicate the approach of a train.
(4)	At an abandoned railroad grade crossing which is marked with a sign indicating that the rail line is abandoned.
(5)	At an industrial or spur line railroad grade crossing marked with a sign reading "Exempt" erected by or with the consent of the appropriate State or local authority.
(c)	A person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an infraction and punished in accordance with G.S. 20‑176. Violation of this section shall not constitute negligence per se.
(d)	"Hazardous materials," for purposes of this section only, means any hazardous material required to be placarded under 49 C.F.R. § 171‑180.
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SECTION 9.  Section 3 of this act becomes effective January 1, 2003.  The remainder of this act becomes effective December 1, 2001, and applies to offenses occurring on or after that date.