GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2017

SESSION LAW 2017-169

HOUSE BILL 716

AN ACT to provide that the laws regulating the distance between motor vehicles traveling on the road do not apply to any non‑leading commercial motor vehicle traveling within a platoon where AUTHORIZED by the department of transportation.

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 non‑leading commercial motor vehicle traveling in a platoon on any roadway where the Department of Transportation has by traffic ordinance authorized travel by platoon. For purposes of this subsection, the term "platoon" means a group of individual commercial motor vehicles traveling at close following distances in a unified manner through the use of an electronically interconnected braking system."

SECTION 2.  The Department shall submit a report on the implementation of this act to the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee on or before April 1, 2018.

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective August 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.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 28^th day of June, 2017.

                                                                    s/  Daniel J. Forest

                                                                         President of the Senate

                                                                    s/  Tim Moore

                                                                         Speaker of the House of Representatives

                                                                    s/  Roy Cooper

                                                                         Governor

Approved 11:44 a.m. this 21^st day of July, 2017