SENATE LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2132

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: JUNE 16, 1997

      The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 2132. 

      This bill requires the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in the Department of Transportation to recognize the behind-the-wheel experience of secondary school driving instructors for the purpose of issuing a license to operate a commercial drivers' school. Currently, DMV regulations require an applicant for a drivers' school license, or an employee of the applicant, to have 500 hours experience providing behind-the-wheel instruction in a commercial driving school. DMV does not recognize the behind-the-wheel instructional experience of secondary school driving instructors as satisfying this requirement.       The committee amended the bill to require the principal of the high school or superintendent of the school district wherein the instructor is employed to affirm, in the form of an affidavit, the person's total number of hours of behind-the-wheel instructional experience.

      The amendments also provide that behind-the-wheel instructional experience for courses taught only on public highways and streets is applicable to fulfillment of any behind-the-wheel hourly instructional requirement. Instructional experience using simulator devices and driving ranges would not be applicable.

      Finally, the bill provides that instructional experience acquired before and after the bill's effective date could be applied toward fulfilling the bill's requirements.