[Effective 1/1/2025]

(a)

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 55-21-303 v2

  • Department: means the department of revenue. See Tennessee Code 55-1-111
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • Operator: means :
    (A) For purposes of a conventionally operated vehicle, every person, other than a chauffeur, who drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle upon a highway or who is exercising control over or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
  • Owner: means a person who holds the legal title of a vehicle, or in the event a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease thereof, with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee, or in the event a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then the conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor shall be deemed the owner for the purpose of this chapter and chapter 10, parts 1-5 of this title. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
  • Person: means a natural person, firm, copartnership, association, corporation, or an engaged ADS. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Traffic: means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances either singly or together while using any highway for purposes of travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
  • Vehicle: means every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) At the time of initial application for the registration of a motor vehicle under this part, or upon renewal, an owner or lessee of a motor vehicle who needs assistance with expressive language or communicating needs to a first responder, including a law enforcement officer, or assistance with exiting a motor vehicle during a traffic stop or welfare check, or who is the parent, legal guardian, or conservator of a person who has such need for assistance and who may be operating the motor vehicle, may request that the department include a designation of such need for assistance in the Tennessee Vehicle Title and Registration System (VTRS) database.
(2) The applicant’s request must be accompanied by a written statement from a licensed physician, psychiatrist, psychologist or senior psychological examiner, or neurologist, stating that an operator of the registrant’s motor vehicle has an intellectual disability, a developmental disability, or a medical condition that may impede communications with, or impact the operator’s encounter with, a first responder. If the applicant is a parent, legal guardian, or conservator, then the parent, legal guardian, or conservator shall verify under penalty of perjury upon a form prescribed by the department that the parent, legal guardian, or conservator is the parent, legal guardian, or conservator of the person who has such need for assistance. If the applicant is a conservator, then the conservator shall also verify that a court in this state granted, through the issuance of an order, the authority to release health-related information and submit with the application a copy of the conservatorship appointment order or letters of conservatorship, or both, with the right granted to the conservator listed in the order or letters, as applicable.
(3) Upon receipt of such a request accompanied by a written statement and, if applicable, the verification form required by a parent, legal guardian, or conservator, and a copy of the conservatorship appointment order or letters of conservatorship required by a conservator, the department shall cause the operator’s status to be entered into the VTRS database, and ensure such designation is associated with the applicant’s motor vehicle and registration.
(b) Information submitted to the department under this section must be supplied to law enforcement to assist in identifying the operator of the vehicle as possibly needing such assistance. Information collected pursuant to this section must only be available to law enforcement for the purpose of ensuring safe and efficient interactions between law enforcement and persons who have such need for assistance, and must not be used for any other purpose.
(c) All law enforcement officers charged with the enforcement of this title and emergency call takers and public safety dispatchers, as described in § 7-86-205, shall receive instruction in the identification of such designation included in the VTRS database as provided for in this section.
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