N.Y. Vehicle & Traffic Law § 509-a: Definitions

§ 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.