Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

SB0190JUS

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE BILL 190

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2024

AN ACT

RELATING TO DRIVING WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INTOXICATING LIQUOR OR DRUGS; ENACTING THE DWI ACT; AMENDING, REPEALING, ENACTING AND RECOMPILING SECTIONS OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE CODE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1. Section 66-1-1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1978, Chapter 35, Section 1) is amended to read:

"66-1-1. SHORT TITLE.--[Articles 1 through 8 of Chapter 64 NMSA 1953] Chapter 66 NMSA 1978 may be cited as the "Motor Vehicle Code"."

SECTION 2. Section 66-1-4.3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "camping body" means a vehicle body primarily designed or converted for use as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel activities excluding recreational vehicles unless used in commerce;

B. "camping trailer" means a camping body, mounted on a chassis, or frame with wheels, designed to be drawn by another vehicle and that has collapsible partial side walls that fold for towing and unfold at the campsite;

C. "cancellation" means that a driver's license is annulled and terminated because of some error or defect or because the licensee is no longer entitled to the license, but cancellation of a license is without prejudice, and application for a new license may be made at any time after cancellation;

D. "casual sale" means the sale of a motor vehicle by the registered owner of the vehicle if the owner has not sold more than four vehicles in that calendar year;

E. "chassis" means the complete motor vehicle, including standard factory equipment, exclusive of the body and cab;

F. "collector" means a person who is the owner of one or more vehicles of historic or special interest who collects, purchases, acquires, trades or disposes of these vehicles or parts thereof for the person's own use in order to preserve, restore and maintain a similar vehicle for hobby purposes;

G. "combination" means any connected assemblage of a motor vehicle and one or more semitrailers, trailers or semitrailers converted to trailers by means of a converter gear;

H. "combination gross vehicle weight" means the sum total of the gross vehicle weights of all units of a combination;

I. "commerce" means the transportation of persons, property or merchandise for hire, compensation, profit or in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise in this state or between New Mexico and a place outside New Mexico, including a place outside the United States;

J. "commercial motor vehicle" means [a] any self-propelled or towed motor vehicle [other than special mobile equipment] used on [public highways in commerce] a highway in interstate commerce to transport passengers or property when the vehicle:

(1) [is operated interstate and] has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of four thousand five hundred thirty-six kilograms, or ten thousand one pounds or more, [or is operated only in intrastate commerce and has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of twenty-six thousand one or more pounds] whichever is greater;

(2) is designed or used to transport more than eight passengers, including the driver, [and is used to transport passengers] for compensation;

(3) is designed or used to transport [sixteen or] more than fifteen passengers, including the driver, and is not used to transport passengers for compensation; or

(4) is used [to transport hazardous materials of the type or quantity requiring placarding under rules prescribed by applicable federal or state law] in transporting material found by the United States secretary of transportation to be hazardous under 49 U.S.C. Section 5103 and transported in a quantity requiring placarding under regulations prescribed by the United States secretary of transportation under 49 C.F.R. Subtitle B, Chapter 1, Subchapter C;

K. "controlled-access highway" means every highway, street or roadway in respect to which owners or occupants of abutting lands and other persons have no legal right of access to or from the highway, street or roadway except at those points only and in the manner as may be determined by the public authority having jurisdiction over the highway, street or roadway;

L. "controlled substance" means any substance defined in Section 30-31-2 NMSA 1978 as a controlled substance;

M. "converter gear" means any assemblage of one or more axles with a fifth wheel mounted thereon, designed for use in a combination to support the front end of a semitrailer but not permanently attached thereto. A converter gear shall not be considered a vehicle, as that term is defined in Section 66-1-4.19 NMSA 1978, but weight attributable thereto shall be included in declared gross weight;

N. "conviction":

(1) means:

(a) a finding of guilt in the trial court in regard to which the violator has waived or exhausted all rights to appeal;

(b) a plea of guilty or nolo contendere accepted by the court;

(d) the promise to mail a payment on a penalty assessment; and

(2) does not include a conditional discharge as provided in Section 31-20-13 NMSA 1978 or a deferred sentence when the terms of the deferred sentence are met;

O. "crosswalk" means:

(1) that part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway; and

(2) any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface; and

P. "curb cut" means a short ramp through a curb or built up to the curb."

SECTION 3. Section 66-1-4.11 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 12, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.11. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "mail" means any item properly addressed with postage prepaid delivered by the United States postal service or any other public or private enterprise primarily engaged in the transport and delivery of letters, packages and other parcels;

B. "manufactured home" means a movable or portable housing structure that exceeds either a width of eight feet or a length of forty feet, constructed to be towed on its own chassis and designed to be installed with or without a permanent foundation for human occupancy;

C. "manufacturer" means every person engaged in the business of constructing or assembling vehicles of a type required to be registered under the Motor Vehicle Code;

D. "manufacturer's certificate of origin" means a certification, on a form supplied by or approved by the department, signed by the manufacturer that the new vehicle or boat described in the certificate has been transferred to the New Mexico dealer or distributor named in the certificate or to a dealer duly licensed or recognized as such in another state, territory or possession of the United States and that such transfer is the first transfer of the vehicle or boat in ordinary trade and commerce;

E. "moped" means a two-wheeled or three-wheeled vehicle with an automatic transmission and a motor having a piston displacement of less than fifty cubic centimeters, that is capable of propelling the vehicle at a maximum speed of not more than thirty miles an hour on level ground, at sea level;

F. "motorboat" means any boat, personal watercraft or other type of vessel propelled by machinery, whether or not machinery is the principal source of propulsion. "Motorboat" includes a vessel propelled or designed to be propelled by a sail, but does not include a sailboard or a windsurf board. "Motorboat" does not include a houseboat or any other vessel that is moored on the water, but not moving on the water;

[F.] G. "motorcycle" means every motor vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, including autocycles and excluding a tractor;

[G.] H. "motor home" means a camping body built on a self-propelled motor vehicle chassis so designed that seating for driver and passengers is within the body itself;

[H.] I. "motor vehicle" means every vehicle that is self-propelled and every vehicle that is propelled by electric power obtained from batteries or from overhead trolley wires, but not operated upon rails, including an electric mobility device, but does not include an electric-assisted bicycle; for the purposes of the Mandatory Financial Responsibility Act, "motor vehicle" does not include "special mobile equipment"; and

[I.] J. "motor vehicle insurance policy" means a policy of vehicle insurance that covers self-propelled vehicles of a kind required to be registered pursuant to New Mexico law for use on the public streets and highways. A "motor vehicle insurance policy":

(1) shall include:

(a) motor vehicle bodily injury and property damage liability coverages in compliance with the Mandatory Financial Responsibility Act; and

(b) uninsured motorist coverage, subject to the provisions of Section 66-5-301 NMSA 1978 permitting the insured to reject such coverage; and

(2) may include:

(a) physical damage coverage;

(b) medical payments coverage; and

SECTION 4. Section 66-3-1010.3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2005, Chapter 325, Section 11, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-3-1010.3. OPERATION AND EQUIPMENT--SAFETY REQUIREMENTS.--

A. A person shall not operate an off-highway motor vehicle:

(1) in a careless, reckless or negligent manner so as to endanger the person or property of another;

(2) while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs as provided by Section [66-8-102] 66-14-2 or 66-14-3 NMSA 1978;

(3) while in pursuit of and with intent to hunt or take a species of animal or bird protected by law unless otherwise authorized by the state game commission;

(4) in pursuit of or harassment of livestock in any manner that negatively affects the livestock's condition;

(5) on or within an earthen tank or other structure meant to water livestock or wildlife, unless the

off-highway motor vehicle is on a route designated by the landowner or land management agency as an off-highway motor vehicle route;

(6) in a manner that has a direct negative effect on or interferes with persons engaged in agricultural practices;

(7) in excess of ten miles per hour within two hundred feet of a business, animal shelter, horseback rider, bicyclist, pedestrian, livestock or occupied dwelling, unless the person operates the vehicle on a closed course or track or a public roadway;

(8) unless in possession of the person's registration certificate or nonresident permit;

(9) unless the vehicle is equipped with a spark arrester approved by the United States forest service; provided that a snowmobile is exempt from this provision;