§ 509-a. Definitions. As used in this article the term: (1) bus shall
mean every motor vehicle, owned, leased, rented or otherwise controlled
by a motor carrier, which (a) is a school bus as defined in section one
hundred forty-two of this chapter or has a seating capacity of more than
ten adult passengers in addition to the driver and which is used for the
transportation of persons under the age of twenty-one or persons of any
age who are mentally or physically disabled to a place of vocational,
academic or religious instruction or religious service including nursery
schools, day care centers and camps, (b) is required to obtain approval
to operate in the state as a common or contract carrier of passengers by
motor vehicle from the commissioner of transportation, or the interstate
commerce commission, (c) is regulated as a bus line by a city that has
adopted an ordinance, local law or charter to regulate or franchise bus
line operations pursuant to subdivision four of section eighty of the
transportation law, (d) is regulated as a van service or other common
carrier of passengers by motor vehicle covered under article seven of
the transportation law by a city with a population of over one million
pursuant to an ordinance or local law adopted pursuant to subdivision
five of section eighty of the transportation law or (e) is operated by a
transit authority or municipality and is used to transport persons for
hire. Provided, however, that bus shall not mean an authorized emergency
vehicle operated in the course of an emergency, or a motor vehicle used
in the transportation of agricultural workers to and from their place of
employment;

(2) driver or bus driver shall mean every person: (i) who is
self-employed and drives a bus for hire or profit; or (ii) who is
employed by a motor carrier and operates a bus owned, leased or rented
by such employer; or (iii) who as a volunteer drives a bus which is
owned, leased or rented by a motor carrier. Provided, however, bus
driver shall not include those persons who are engaged in the
maintenance, repair or garaging of such buses and in the course of their
duties must incidentally drive a bus without passengers, or who, as a
volunteer, drive a bus with passengers for less than thirty days each
year;

(3) motor carrier shall mean any person, corporation, municipality, or
entity, public or private, who directs one or more bus drivers and who
operates a bus wholly within or partly within and partly without this
state in connection with the business of transporting passengers for
hire or in the operation or administration of any business, or place of
vocational, academic or religious instruction or religious service for
persons under the age of twenty-one or persons of any age who are
mentally disabled including nursery schools, day care centers and camps,
or public agency, except such out-of-state public or governmental
operators who may be exempted from the provisions of this article by the
commissioner through regulation promulgated by the commissioner;

(4) intoxicating liquor shall mean and include, alcohol, spirits,
liquor, wine, beer and cider having alcoholic content;

(5) drug shall mean any substance listed in section thirty-three
hundred six of the public health law not dispensed or consumed pursuant
to a lawful prescription;

(6) controlled substance shall mean any substance listed in section
thirty-three hundred six of the public health law not dispensed or
consumed pursuant to lawful prescription.

(7) accident shall include any accident with another vehicle, object
or person, which occurs in this state or elsewhere, in which any person
is killed or injured, or in which damage to the property of any one
person, including the operator, in excess of one thousand five hundred
dollars is sustained, or in which damage in excess of two thousand five
hundred dollars is sustained to any bus as defined in section one
hundred four of this chapter; provided however that accidents occurring
outside this state shall not be recorded on the driver's license record.