HB0500

HOUSE BILL 500

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

William "Bill" R. Rehm

AN ACT

RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES; REQUIRING A SELLER OF SALVAGE VEHICLES TO BE LICENSED; REQUIRING A SELLER OF SALVAGE VEHICLES TO MAINTAIN RECORDS OF SALVAGE VEHICLE SALES.

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

SECTION 1. Section 66-1-4.4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 5, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.4. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "day" means calendar day, unless otherwise provided in the Motor Vehicle Code;

B. "dealer", except as specifically excluded, means any person who sells or solicits or advertises the sale of new or used motor vehicles, manufactured homes or trailers subject to registration in this state or who is a seller of salvage vehicles; "dealer" does not include:

(1) receivers, trustees, administrators, executors, guardians or other persons appointed by or acting under judgment, decree or order of any court;

(2) public officers while performing their duties as such officers;

(3) persons making casual sales of their own vehicles;

(4) finance companies, banks and other lending institutions making sales of repossessed vehicles; or

(5) licensed brokers under the Manufactured Housing Act who, for a fee, commission or other valuable consideration, engage in brokerage activities related to the sale, exchange or lease purchase of pre-owned manufactured homes on a site installed for a consumer;

C. "declared gross weight" means the maximum gross vehicle weight or gross combination vehicle weight at which a vehicle or combination will be operated during the registration period, as declared by the registrant for registration and fee purposes; the vehicle or combination shall have only one declared gross weight for all operating considerations;

D. "department" means the taxation and revenue department, the secretary of taxation and revenue or any employee of the department exercising authority lawfully delegated to that employee by the secretary;

E. "designated accessible parking space for persons with significant mobility limitation" means any space, including an access aisle, that is marked and reserved for the parking of a passenger vehicle that carries registration plates or a parking placard with the international symbol of access issued in accordance with Section 66-3-16 NMSA 1978 and that is designated by a conspicuously posted sign bearing the international symbol of access and, if the parking space is paved, by a clearly visible depiction of this symbol painted in blue on the pavement of the space;

F. "director" means the secretary;

G. "disqualification" means a prohibition against driving a commercial motor vehicle;

H. "distinguishing number" means the number assigned by the department to a vehicle whose identifying number has been destroyed or obliterated or the number assigned by the department to a vehicle that has never had an identifying number;

I. "distributor" means a person who distributes or sells new or used motor vehicles to dealers and who is not a manufacturer;

J. "division", without further specification, "division of motor vehicles" or "motor vehicle division" means the department;

K. "driver" means every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle, including a motorcycle, upon a highway, who is exercising control over or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle or who operates or is in actual physical control of an off-highway motor vehicle;

L. "driver's license" means a license or a class of license issued by a state or other jurisdiction to an individual that authorizes the individual to drive a motor vehicle; and

M. "driveaway-towaway operation" means an operation in which any motor vehicle, new or used, is the item being transported when one set or more of wheels of any such motor vehicle is on the roadway during the course of transportation, whether or not the motor vehicle furnishes the motive power."

SECTION 2. Section 66-1-4.16 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 120, Section 17, as amended) is amended to read:

"66-1-4.16. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Vehicle Code:

A. "safety glazing materials" means glazing materials constructed, treated or combined with other materials to reduce substantially, in comparison with ordinary sheet glass or plate glass, the likelihood of injury to persons by objects from exterior sources or by these safety glazing materials when they are cracked and broken;

B. "safety zone" means the area or space that is officially set apart within a highway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and that is protected or is so marked or indicated by adequate signs as to be plainly visible at all times while set apart as a safety zone;

C. "salvage vehicle" means a vehicle:

(1) other than a nonrepairable vehicle, of a type subject to registration that has been wrecked, destroyed or damaged excluding, pursuant to rules issued by the department, hail damage, to the extent that the owner, leasing company, financial institution or the insurance company that insured or is responsible for repair of the vehicle considers it uneconomical to repair the vehicle and that is subsequently not repaired by or for the person who owned the vehicle at the time of the event resulting in damage; or

(2) that was determined to be uneconomical to repair and for which a total loss payment is made by an insurer, whether or not the vehicle is subsequently repaired, if, prior to or upon making payment to the claimant, the insurer obtained the agreement of the claimant to the amount of the total loss settlement and informed the claimant that, pursuant to rules of the department, the title must be branded and submitted to the department for issuance of a salvage certificate of title for the vehicle;

D. "school bus" means a commercial motor vehicle used to transport preprimary, primary or secondary school students from home to school, from school to home or to and from school-sponsored events, but not including a vehicle:

(1) operated by a common carrier, subject to and meeting all requirements of the public regulation commission but not used exclusively for the transportation of students;

(2) operated solely by a government-owned transit authority, if the transit authority meets all safety requirements of the public regulation commission but is not used exclusively for the transportation of students; or

(3) operated as a per capita feeder as defined in Section 22-16-6 NMSA 1978;

E. "seal" means the official seal of the taxation and revenue department as designated by the secretary;

F. "secretary" means the secretary of taxation and revenue, and, except for the purposes of Sections 66-2-3

and 66-2-12 NMSA 1978, also includes the deputy secretary and any division director delegated by the secretary;

G. "seller of salvage vehicles" means a person engaged in the business of selling, transferring, auctioning or disposing of salvage vehicles on behalf of owners, insurance companies, authorized adjusters, leasing companies, self-insured persons or financial institutions;

[G.] H. "semitrailer" means a vehicle without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that some significant part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle;

[H.] I. "sidewalk" means a portion of street between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines, intended for the use of pedestrians;

[I.] J. "slow-moving vehicle" means a vehicle that is ordinarily moved, operated or driven at a speed less than twenty-five miles per hour;

[J.] K. "solid tire" means every tire of rubber or other resilient material that does not depend upon compressed air for the support of the load;

[K.] L. "special mobile equipment" means a vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including but not limited to farm tractors, road construction or maintenance machinery, ditch-digging apparatus, well-boring apparatus and concrete mixers;

[L.] M. "specially constructed vehicle" means a vehicle of a type required to be registered under the Motor Vehicle Code not originally constructed under a distinctive name, make, model or type by a generally recognized manufacturer of vehicles and not materially altered from its original construction;

[M.] N. "state" means a state, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia or any state of the Republic of Mexico or the Federal District of Mexico or a province of the Dominion of Canada;

[N.] O. "state highway" means a public highway that has been designated as a state highway by the legislature, the state transportation commission or the secretary of transportation;

[O.] P. "stop", when required, means complete cessation from movement;

[P.] Q. "stop, stopping or standing", when prohibited, means any stopping or standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic-control sign or signal;

[Q.] R. "street" or "highway" means a way or place generally open to the use of the public as a matter of right for the purpose of vehicular travel, even though it may be temporarily closed or restricted for the purpose of construction, maintenance, repair or reconstruction;

[R.] S. "subsequent offender" means a person who was previously a first offender and who again, under state law, federal law or a municipal ordinance or a tribal law, has been adjudicated guilty of the charge of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug that rendered the person incapable of safely driving a motor vehicle, regardless of whether the person's sentence was suspended or deferred; and

[S.] T. "suspension" means that a person's driver's license and privilege to drive a motor vehicle on the public highways are temporarily withdrawn."

SECTION 3. A new section of the Motor Vehicle Code is enacted to read:

"[NEW MATERIAL] SELLER OF SALVAGE VEHICLE LICENSE--SELLER OF SALVAGE VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS.--

A. A person, unless licensed to do so by the department, shall not carry on or conduct the active trade or business as a seller of salvage vehicles. Any person engaged in the business of selling, transferring, auctioning or disposing of salvage vehicles on behalf of owners, insurance companies, authorized adjusters, leasing companies, self-insured persons or financial institutions shall be presumed to be conducting the business of a seller of salvage vehicles.

B. Upon the sale of a salvage vehicle and before allowing a purchaser to take possession, a seller of salvage vehicles shall register the sale of the salvage vehicle with the department through the department's electronic registration system or:

(1) perfect or register the title of the salvage vehicle with the department, in the purchaser's name;

(2) at the time of sale, provide the purchaser with an affidavit that states that the vehicle is a salvage vehicle;

(3) within forty-eight hours after the sale is completed, provide the department with a:

(a) brief description of the salvage vehicle;

(b) copy of the purchaser's perfected title; and

(4) maintain the record of sale of the salvage vehicle for five years for periodic review by the department and authorized law enforcement personnel.

C. Except as provided in Subsection D of this section, every registration and certificate of title issued by the department for a salvage vehicle that is or was registered pursuant to this section shall indicate that the vehicle is a salvage vehicle.

D. If a seller of salvage vehicles sells a salvage vehicle to a person residing outside of the United States, then every registration and certificate of title issued by the department for a salvage vehicle that is or was registered pursuant to this section shall indicate that the vehicle is a salvage vehicle that has been sold to a person residing outside of the United States."

SECTION 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2013.

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