Connecticut General Statutes 14-29 – Owners of motor or service buses, taxicabs, school buses, school transportation vehicles and motor vehicles in livery service to furnish insurance or bond
(a) The commissioner shall not register any motor bus, taxicab, school bus, motor vehicle in livery service, student transportation vehicle or service bus and no person may operate or cause to be operated upon any public highway any such motor vehicle until the owner or lessee thereof has procured insurance or a bond satisfactory to the commissioner that shall indemnify the insured against any legal liability for personal injury, the death of any person or property damage, which injury, death or damage may result from or have been caused by the use or operation of such motor vehicle described in the contract of insurance or such bond. Such insurance or bond shall not be required from (1) a municipality which the commissioner finds has maintained sufficient financial responsibility to meet legal liability for personal injury, death or damage resulting from or caused by the use or operation of a service bus owned or operated by such municipality, or (2) the owner or lessee of such class of motor vehicle who holds a certificate of public necessity and convenience from the Department of Transportation if such owner or lessee has procured from the department a certificate that the department has found that such owner or lessee is of sufficient financial responsibility to meet legal liability for personal injury, death or property damage resulting from or caused by the use or operation of such motor vehicle. The Department of Transportation may issue such certificate upon presentation of evidence of financial responsibility that is satisfactory to it.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 14-29
- another: may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
- Commissioner: includes the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and any assistant to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles who is designated and authorized by, and who is acting for, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles under a designation. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Highway: includes any state or other public highway, road, street, avenue, alley, driveway, parkway, place or dedicated roadway for bus rapid transit service, under the control of the state or any political subdivision of the state, dedicated, appropriated or opened to public travel or other use. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Motor bus: includes any motor vehicle, except a taxicab, as defined in section 13b-95, operated in whole or in part on any street or highway in a manner affording a means of transportation by indiscriminately receiving or discharging passengers, or running on a regular route or over any portion of a regular route or between fixed termini. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Motor vehicle: means any vehicle propelled or drawn by any nonmuscular power, except aircraft, motor boats, road rollers, baggage trucks used about railroad stations or other mass transit facilities, electric battery-operated wheel chairs when operated by persons with physical disabilities at speeds not exceeding fifteen miles per hour, golf carts operated on highways solely for the purpose of crossing from one part of the golf course to another, golf-cart-type vehicles operated on roads or highways on the grounds of state institutions by state employees, agricultural tractors, farm implements, such vehicles as run only on rails or tracks, self-propelled snow plows, snow blowers and lawn mowers, when used for the purposes for which they were designed and operated at speeds not exceeding four miles per hour, whether or not the operator rides on or walks behind such equipment, motor-driven cycles, as defined in section 14-286, special mobile equipment, as defined in section 14-165, mini-motorcycles, as defined in section 14-289j, electric bicycles, electric foot scooters and any other vehicle not suitable for operation on a highway. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Owner: means any person holding title to a motor vehicle, or having the legal right to register the same, including purchasers under conditional bills of sale. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Person: includes any individual, corporation, limited liability company, association, copartnership, company, firm, business trust or other aggregation of individuals but does not include the state or any political subdivision thereof, unless the context clearly states or requires. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Registration: includes the certificate of motor vehicle registration and the number plate or plates used in connection with such registration. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- School bus: means any school bus, as defined in section 14-275, including a commercial motor vehicle used to transport preschool, elementary school or secondary school students from home to school, from school to home, or to and from school-sponsored events, but does not include a bus used as a common carrier. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Service bus: includes any vehicle except a vanpool vehicle or a school bus designed and regularly used to carry ten or more passengers when used in private service for the transportation of persons without charge to the individual. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Student: means any person under the age of twenty-one years who is attending a preprimary, primary or secondary school program of education. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
- Vehicle: includes any device suitable for the conveyance, drawing or other transportation of persons or property, whether operated on wheels, runners, a cushion of air or by any other means. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
(b) The amount of insurance or of such bond that each such vehicle owner or lessee shall carry as insurance or indemnity against claims for personal injury or death and legal liability resulting from damage to the property of passengers or others for any one accident shall be not less than (1) a single limit of liability of (A) one hundred thousand dollars, if such vehicle is designed or used to transport seven passengers or less, or (B) seven hundred fifty thousand dollars, if such vehicle is designed or used to transport eight to fourteen passengers without compensation; (2) the minimum amounts established in 49 C.F.R. part 387, as amended from time to time, if such vehicle is designed or used to transport eight passengers or more for compensation, or fifteen passengers or more without compensation; (3) one million five hundred thousand dollars, if such vehicle is operated in livery service under the provisions of sections 13b-101 to 13b-109, inclusive, and designed or used to transport fourteen passengers or less; and (4) five million dollars, if such vehicle is operated in livery service under the provisions of sections 13b-101 to 13b-109, inclusive, and designed or used to transport fifteen passengers or more.
(c) (1) Any person or company issuing any such insurance or indemnity bond shall file with the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles a certificate in such form as the commissioner prescribes, and no such insurance or bond shall lapse, expire or be cancelled while the registration is in force until the commissioner has been given at least ten days’ written notice of an intention to cancel and until the commissioner has accepted other insurance or another indemnity bond and has notified the person or company seeking to cancel such insurance or bond that such other insurance or bond has been accepted or until the registration of such motor vehicle described in such insurance policy or bond has been suspended or cancelled.
(2) No person or company issuing any such insurance or indemnity bond shall issue an insurance policy or indemnity bond for a motor vehicle specified in subsection (a) of this section for limits less than those specified in subsection (b) of this section. Upon initial registration or renewal of any such motor vehicle, the commissioner may presume that an insurance policy or indemnity bond meets the minimum amounts specified in said subsection (b) for such vehicle.
(d) Any person injured in person or property by any such motor vehicle may apply to the commissioner for the name and description of the insurer of the vehicle causing such injury or the name of the surety upon any indemnity bond of any such owner or the name of the holder of a certificate of financial responsibility.
(e) Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year or both.