Relating to county commissions and schools outside of the corporate limits of municipalities; to establish a reduced speed school zone on any road or highway in the immediate area surrounding a school in order to ensure the safety of school children and other persons entering and leaving school property; to provide for maintenance of the signs; to provide that the fine for a traffic violation in a school zone would be doubled; to provide for the distribution of the funds collected from any fines for a violation; and in connection therewith would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
Section 1. This act shall be known as the "County and Municipal Reduced Speed School Zone Act."
Section 2. (a) For the purposes of this act, the following words have the following meanings:
(1) REDUCED SPEED SCHOOL ZONE. A designated length of a road or highway extending between school zone speed limit signs with or without warning lights.
(2) ROAD or HIGHWAY. Any road or highway except an interstate highway.
(3) SCHOOL ZONE. All school property, including school grounds and any road or highway abutting the school grounds and extending 300 feet along the road or highway from the school grounds.
(b) A county commission may establish a reduced speed school zone for any school in the county outside the
(b) A reduced speed school zone is hereby established for any school in the county outside the corporate limits of a municipality, including schools along state-maintained roads or highways.
(c) No person may operate a motor vehicle in excess of 20 miles per hour when passing through a reduced speed school zone during school hours when children are present and outside the building or for a time period generally 30 minutes before and after school hours.
(d)(1) A reduced speed school zone shall include a distance of 300 hundred feet on either side of a school building or school grounds and shall be posted with an appropriate sign or signs showing: "SCHOOL-20 M.P.H. (here state the times) or WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT."
(21) At an appropriate distance before reaching a reduced speed school zone, an appropriate sign or signs shall be erected warning of the approaching reduced speed school zone.
(32) A sign or signs at the end of the school zone shall designate where the motor vehicle may resume the regular speed limits.
(43) All signs and signing locations will be in accordance with the regulations contained in the current Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
Section 3. (a) Signs on a reduced speed school zone located on a county-maintained road shall be maintained by the county commission.
(b) Signs on a reduced speed school zone located on a state-maintained road or highway within a county shall be maintained by the State Department of Transportation.
Section 4. Any alteration of maximum limits on a state highway by a county commission pursuant to this act shall not be effective until 60 days after notification to the State Department of Transportation.
Section 5. School zone speed limits shall be posted on the State Department of Transportation's standard size speed limit signs and the times when the reduced speed limits are in effect. Law enforcement authorities shall enforce school zone speed limits.
Section 6. Upon conviction of a school zone speed violation, the operator of the motor vehicle shall be assessed a fine of double the amount prescribed by law outside a school zone. The signs, placed at the entrance of the school zone, shall warn of the doubled fines for speeding within a school zone. The signs shall also state that the doubled fines are applicable only during the times posted on the signs.
Section 7. The proceeds from any fines collected pursuant to this act payable to a county or municipality pursuant to state law shall be paid into the public road and bridge fund of the county or the treasury of the municipality in which the offense occurred.
Section 8. Although this bill would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds, the bill is excluded from further requirements and application under Amendment 621, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, because the bill defines a new crime or amends the definition of an existing crime.
Section 9. All laws or parts of laws which conflict with this act are repealed.
Section 10. This act shall become effective on the first day of the third month following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law.