GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2017

H                                                                                                                                                   D

HOUSE BILL DRH30278-ML-137A   (03/13)

Short Title:      CMVs/Use of Platoons.		(Public)
Sponsors:	Representative Torbett.
Referred to:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to provide that the laws regulating the distance between motor vehicles traveling on the road do not apply to any nonleading commercial motor vehicle traveling within a platoon.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 20‑152 reads as rewritten:

"§ 20‑152.  Following too closely.

(a)        The driver of a motor vehicle shall not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon and the condition of the highway.

(b)        The driver of any motor vehicle traveling upon a highway outside of a business or residential district and following another motor vehicle shall, whenever conditions permit, leave sufficient space so that an overtaking vehicle may enter and occupy such space without danger, except that this shall not prevent a motor vehicle from overtaking and passing another motor vehicle. This provision shall not apply to funeral processions.

(c) Subsections (a) and (b) of this section shall not apply to the driver of any nonleading commercial motor vehicle traveling in a platoon with other commercial motor vehicles. For purposes of this subsection, the term "platoon" means a group of individual commercial motor vehicles traveling in a unified manner through the use of an electronically interconnected braking system."

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2017. Prosecutions for offenses committed before the effective date of this act are not abated or affected by this act, and the statutes that would be applicable but for this act remain applicable to those prosecutions.