H-4577              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 2012

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Representatives Ferguson, P. King, Walker and Lux

Read first time 2/8/88 and referred to Committee on Transportation.

AN ACT Relating to traffic safety education; adding a new section to chapter 43.59 RCW; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 43.59 RCW to read as follows:

          (1) The legislature recognizes that motor vehicle traffic death and injury rates for the youth of this state are higher than those rates for other age groups.  Therefore, actions must be taken to reduce these deaths and injuries.

          (2) The traffic safety commission shall purchase traffic safety education simulators that are five-place, interactive, truck and trailer-mounted systems capable of presenting actual critical traffic problems with real scenes that require defensive driving to avoid simulated disasters.  These simulators shall be video projected from multiple disc data sources, monitored by an operator who has a manual override capability.  Each student module shall be capable of presenting different scenarios.

          (3) The traffic problem scenarios shall be coordinated with and approved by the superintendent of public instruction, the Washington state patrol, the traffic safety commission, and the department of licensing.

          (4) The simulator shall be operated by a nonprofit organization experienced in traffic safety education, and shall be made available to schools and to private industry when not being used by schools.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     The sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1989, from the general fund to the superintendent of public instruction for the purposes of this act.  The superintendent of public instruction shall establish a trust fund in the custody of the state treasurer.  The treasurer shall invest moneys in the trust fund, and notwithstanding RCW 43.84.090, all earnings of investments of the trust fund shall be credited to the fund.  Moneys in the trust fund may be spent only as matching funds with contributions from private sources.  If matching private funds are not available for the purposes of this act by June 30, 1989, this appropriation shall lapse.