BILL NO. 38
(as introduced)
1st Session, 59th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
52 Elizabeth II, 2003
Motor Vehicle Act
(amended)
Jerry Pye
Dartmouth North
First Reading: October 29, 2003
Second Reading:
Third Reading:
Explanatory Note
This Bill prohibits the use of a cellular telephone by any person while operating a motor vehicle. Exceptions to the prohibition are set out respecting emergency situations.
An Act to Amend Chapter 293
of the Revised Statutes, 1989,
the Motor Vehicle Act
Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:
1 Chapter 293 of the Revised Statutes, 1989, the Motor Vehicle Act, is amended by adding immediately after Section 184 the following Section:
(2) No person shall use a cellular telephone while driving a motor vehicle on a highway.
(3) Subsection (2) does not apply to
(a) a person reporting an emergency if it is not practical or safe to stop or park the motor vehicle before reporting the emergency;
(b) police or fire department vehicles or ambulances;
(c) handsfree use of a cellular telephone; or
(d) such other use of a cellular telephone as the Governor in Council may prescribe by regulation.
(4) The Governor in Council may make regulations prescribing uses of cellular telephones to which subsection (2) does not apply.
(5) The exercise of the authority contained in subsection (4) is regulations within the meaning of the Regulations Act.
(6) Every person who contravenes a provision of this Section is guilty of an offence and liable on summary convention to a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars or more than one hundred dollars.
2 The POINT SYSTEM TABLE in subsection 282(2) of Chapter 293, as amended by Chapter 24 of the Acts of 1994, is further amended by adding "184A(2)," immediately after "178" in 13.
3 (1) Section 292 of Chapter 293, as enacted by Chapter 10 of the Acts of 2002, is amended by striking out "or 183" in the sixth line and substituting ", 183 or 184A".
(2) Upon the coming into force of Section 292 of Chapter 293, as enacted by Chapter 10 of the Acts of 2002, subsection 184A(6) of Chapter 293, as enacted by this Act, is repealed.
4 Within one year of this Act receiving Royal Assent, the Minister of Transportation and Public Works shall undertake a review of Section 184A of the Motor Vehicle Act to determine whether handsfree use of a cellular telephone or personal communications service (PCS) telephone by a person while driving a motor vehicle on a highway should be permitted.
This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 2003 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created October 29, 2003. Send comments to legc.office@novascotia.ca.
