GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1991

S	1 

SENATE BILL 315

Short Title:  Physicians and Highway Safety.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Staton.
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Referred to:  Transportation.
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March 27, 1991

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO CLARIFY THE ROLE OF PHYSICIANS IN PROMOTING HIGHWAY SAFETY.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 20-7(e) reads as rewritten:
"(e)	The Division is hereby authorized to grant unlimited licenses or licenses containing such limitations as it may deem advisable. Such limitation or limitations shall be noted on the face of the license, and it shall be unlawful for the holder of a license so limited to operate a motor vehicle without complying with the limitations, and the operation of a motor vehicle without complying with the limitations by a person holding a license with such limitations shall be the equivalent of operating a motor vehicle without a driver's license. Any physician licensed to practice medicine may notify the Division when a patient of the physician has a physical or mental disability that, in the good faith opinion of the physician, affects the person's ability to operate a motor vehicle safely.  Any physician making this notification shall be immune from any civil or criminal liability that may otherwise be incurred or imposed as a result of the notification.  If any applicant has any physical or mental disability which affects his or her operation of a motor vehicle, the Division may require to be filed with it a certificate of such applicant's condition signed by some medical authority of the applicant's community designated by the Division.  This certificate shall in all cases be treated as confidential. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prevent the Division from refusing to issue a license, either limited or unlimited, to any person deemed to be incapable of operating a motor vehicle with safety to himself and to the public: Provided, that nothing herein shall prohibit deaf persons from operating motor vehicles who in every other way meet the requirements of this section."
Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification.