NY State Senate Bill 2023-S409

Senate Bill S409

2023-2024 Legislative Session

Relates to the amount of the indemnity bond or insurance required by common carrier ambulettes and paratransit vehicles

download bill text pdf

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Transportation Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

Please enter your contact information

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A valid email address is required.

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 03, 2024	referred to transportation
Jan 04, 2023	referred to transportation

2023-S409 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Transportation
Law Section:: Vehicle and Traffic Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §370, V & T L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2019-2020: S8335
2021-2022: S6245

2023-S409 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Provides for a minimum indemnity bond or insurance policy of $500,000 required by certain common carrier ambulettes and paratransit vehicles.

2023-S409 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S409

SPONSOR: THOMAS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to indemnity
bonds or insurance policies for common carrier ambulettes and paratran-
sit vehicles

 
PURPOSE:

This legislation will provide 'relief from unaffordable insurance premi-
ums for ambulettes and paratransit vehicles

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section I: Amends the vehicle and traffic law to require ambulette and
paratransit vehicles to have a combined single limit policy of at least
five hundred thousand dollars.

Section 2: Effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Ambulettes and paratransit vehicles all serve important roles for New
Yorkers. Ambulettes provide an alternative option for patients who
require transportation to medical facilities but do not need treatment
along the way. People depend on this service to get to chemotherapy
treatments, dialysis, and other crucial medical treatments. Under
current law, these entities are grouped with other for-hire-vehicles,
like limos, in relation to their required minimum insurance policies.
Due to this classification, ambulettes and paratransit vehicles are now
faced with unaffordable insurance premiums even though they serve very
different purposes and have different risk characteristics from other
for-hire-vehicle services.

Under Medicaid, recipients who require medical services but do not have
a means of travel to obtain the necessary care, may be provided with
approved transportation. Approved carriers are then reimbursed at a set
rate, which does not reflect the cost incurred by the increased insur-
ance premiums. This sudden increase has caused numerous companies to go
out of business since they can no longer afford to operate. To make sure
people still have access to these services, the state needs to adjust
the required minimum insurance policies. This legislation therefore
modifies the current minimum combined single limit policies to ensure
the statutory amount reflects the services ambulettes and paratransit
vehicles provide.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-22: S.6245-A (Thomas) / A.2153-A (Jean-Pierre): Referred to Trans-
portation.

2019- 20: S.8335 (Kaminsky) / A.10734 (Jean-Pierre): Referred to Trans-
portation.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2023-S409 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                    409
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                                (PREFILED)
 
                              January 4, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  THOMAS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
 
 AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in  relation  to  indemnity
   bonds  or  insurance  policies for common carrier ambulettes and para-
   transit vehicles

   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  The  second  undesignated  paragraph  of subdivision 1 of
 section 370 of the vehicle and traffic law, as amended by section  1  of
 part  ZZ  of  chapter  59  of  the  laws  of 2021, is amended to read as
 follows:
   For damages for and incident to death or injuries to persons and inju-
 ry to or destruction of property: For each motorcycle and for each motor
 vehicle engaged in the business of carrying or  transporting  passengers
 for hire, having a seating capacity of not more than seven passengers, a
 bond  or  insurance policy with a minimum liability of twenty-five thou-
 sand dollars and a maximum liability of fifty thousand dollars for bodi-
 ly injury, and a minimum liability of fifty thousand dollars and a maxi-
 mum liability of one hundred thousand dollars for death  and  a  minimum
 liability  of ten thousand dollars for injury to or destruction of prop-
 erty; for each motor vehicle engaged in  the  business  of  carrying  or
 transporting  passengers for hire, having a seating capacity of not less
 than eight passengers, a bond or insurance policy with a combined single
 limit of at least one million five hundred thousand dollars  for  bodily
 injury  or  death  to  one  or more persons, and because of injury to or
 destruction of property in any one accident; provided, further that  for
 COMMON  CARRIER AMBULETTES, PARATRANSIT VEHICLES, AND commuter vans that
 are engaged in the business of carrying or transporting  passengers  for
 hire,  having  a  seating  capacity of not less than eight passengers, a
 bond or insurance policy with a combined single limit of at  least  five

  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                            LBD01894-02-3
 S. 409                              2
 
 hundred  thousand  dollars  for  bodily  injury  or death to one or more
 persons, and because of injury to or destruction of property in any  one
 accident.  For  the  purposes of this paragraph, the term "commuter van"
 shall have the same meaning as such term is defined in section 19-502 of
 the administrative code of the city of New York.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.