O F F I C E O F L E G I S L A T I V E R E S E A R C H
P U B L I C A C T S U M M A R Y
Page 1
PA 21-195—sSB 983
Transportation Committee
AN ACT CONCERNING SE RVICE VEHICLES AND A GRICULTURAL
TRACTORS
SUMMARY: This act expands the state’s vulnerable user law 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 the
U.S. government authorizes to carry mail; or (4) vehicle an express delivery
carrier operates (collectively, “service vehicles”).
The act also requires a driver, when passing a service vehicle or agricultural
tractor on the left, to pass at a distance of at least three feet. It does so by
extending the definition of “safe distance” in the state’s passing law.
Under existing law and the act, 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 a 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 payload or for some other commercial
purpose (CGS § 14-1(2)).
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” who
exercised reasonable care in using the public way.
The act expands the list of vulnerable users to include people operating
specified service vehicles. The other vulnerable users under existing law 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.
O L R P U B L I C A C T S U M M A R Y
Page 2 of 2
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. Prior law only specified 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 act 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).