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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 983 (File 426, as amended by Senate "A")*
AN ACT CONCERNING SLOWING DOWN FOR SERVICE
VEHICLES.
SUMMARY
This bill expands the state’s vulnerable user law (see below) to
include people operating a (1) commercial motor vehicle equipped
with a garbage compactor, detachable container, or curbside recycling
body; (2) tank vehicle; (3) vehicle authorized by the U.S. government to
carry mail; or (4) vehicle operated by an express delivery carrier
(“service vehicles”).
The bill also, for the purposes of passing another vehicle on the left,
extends an existing definition of “safe distance” to apply when passing
service vehicles and agricultural tractors. Thus, when overtaking and
passing them, a driver must pass at a distance of at least three feet.
Under existing law and the bill, a “tank vehicle” is a commercial
motor vehicle with a permanently or temporarily attached tank
designed to transport liquid or gaseous material, but not a vehicle with
a portable tank that has a rated capacity of 1,000 gallons or less (CGS §
14-1(97)). Additionally, an “agricultural tractor” is a tractor or other
form of non-muscular motive power used for (1) transporting, hauling,
plowing, cultivating, planting, harvesting, reaping, or other
agricultural purposes on any farm or other private property or (2)
transporting, from one farm to another, agricultural implements and
farm products, provided the tractor is not used on any public road for
transporting a pay load or for some other commercial purpose (CGS §
14-1(2)).
*Senate Amendment “A” strikes the underlying bill, which
generally required drivers passing to the left of a stationary or slow-
moving service vehicle to immediately reduce their vehicles’ speed to a 2021SB-00983-R01-BA.DOCX
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reasonable level below the posted speed limit.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2021
VULNERABLE USER LAW
By law, a driver operating a motor vehicle on a public way faces a
penalty of up to $1,000 if he or she fails to exercise reasonable care and
causes substantial bodily harm to, or the serious physical injury or
death of, a “vulnerable user,” provided the vulnerable user exercised
reasonable care in using the public way.
The bill expands the list of vulnerable users to include people
operating specified service vehicles. Under current law, vulnerable
users are:
1. pedestrians;
2. highway workers;
3. people riding or driving animals;
4. people riding a bicycle, electric bicycle, or electric foot scooter;
5. skateboarders and in-line or roller skaters;
6. people riding or driving agricultural tractors;
7. people using wheelchairs or motorized chairs; and
8. people who are blind and their service animals.
By law, a “public way” includes any of the following that are under
the control of the state or a political subdivision and open to public
travel or use: public highways, roads, streets, avenues, alleys,
driveways, parkways, or places. Additionally, the law defines
“substantial bodily harm” as bodily injury that (1) involves a
temporary but substantial disfigurement, (2) causes a temporary but
substantial loss or impairment of a body part’s or organ’s function, or
(3) causes the fracture of any body part. The law also specifies that
“serious physical injury” has the same meaning as it does under the 2021SB-00983-R01-BA.DOCX
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penal code (i.e., a physical injury that creates a substantial risk of
death, or that causes serious disfigurement, serious impairment of
health, or serious loss or impairment of an organ’s function).
PASSING LAW
Existing law generally requires a driver of a vehicle passing another
vehicle traveling in the same direction to (1) pass on the left at a safe
distance and (2) not move right until safely clear of the overtaken
vehicle. Current law specifies that in the case of a vehicle overtaking
and passing a person riding a bicycle, electric bicycle, or electric foot
scooter, a “safe distance” is at least three feet (CGS § 14-232). The bill
extends this specification to passing service vehicles and agricultural
tractors. Under existing law, a violation of this statute is an infraction.
By law, these requirements do not apply in situations when the
driver is lawfully passing on the right or in a no-passing zone (CGS §§
14-233 & 14-234).
COMMITTEE ACTION
Transportation Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 35 Nay 0 (03/24/2021)