H-384                _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1141

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Representatives Ferguson, Appelwick, Miller, Heavey, Sayan, Nelson, R. Meyers, Zellinsky, P. King and Winsley

Read first time 1/18/89 and referred to Committees on Education/Appropriations.

AN ACT Relating to traffic safety education; adding new sections to chapter 28A.08 RCW; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     (1) The legislature recognizes that motor vehicle traffic death and injury rates for youth of this state are higher than those rates for other age groups.  Therefore, actions must be taken to reduce those deaths and injuries.  Driving simulators offer the technology that allows increased training by simulating conditions that cannot be done in actual on-highway demonstrations.  Driving simulators offer the ability to improve the driving skills of young drivers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     The superintendent of public instruction in cooperation with the Washington state patrol, the department of licensing, the department of transportation, and the traffic safety commission shall develop a traffic safety education simulator.  The simulator shall be a five-place interactive truck trailer-mounted system, capable of presenting actual critical traffic problems with realistic scenes that require defensive driving to avoid simulated disasters.  The simulators shall be video-projected from multiple-disk data sources and monitored by an operator who has manual override capabilities.  Each student module should be capable of presenting different scenarios from others that are operating simultaneously.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     The superintendent of public instruction shall coordinate with the Washington state patrol, the department of licensing, the department of transportation, and the traffic safety commission on the scenarios to be used in the traffic simulation videos in making the simulation equipment available to private industry and to the general public when it is not being utilized by school-age driver safety students.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     The superintendent of public instruction shall contract with a nonprofit corporation experienced in traffic safety education for the development and operation of this traffic safety education simulator.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.     The superintendent of public instruction is authorized to establish a fee for the use of the traffic safety education simulator at a level which will pay for the operating and maintenance costs of the simulator and the program on a self-sustaining basis.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.     The sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1991, from the general fund to the superintendent of public instruction for the purpose of this act.  No funds may be spent from this fund until private matching funds of at least one million eight hundred thousand dollars shall be accumulated in a matching trust fund.

          The superintendent of public instruction shall establish a trust fund for the receipt of these private moneys in the custody of the state treasurer.  The treasurer shall invest in the trust fund and, notwithstanding RCW 43.84.090, all earnings of the investments of the trust fund shall be credited to the fund.  Moneys in the trust fund may be spent only as matching funds and spent in relative proportion to the moneys appropriated under this section.  All moneys in the trust fund and from this appropriation shall be spent only for the development of the traffic safety education simulator.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7.     Sections 1 through 5 of this act are each added to chapter 28A.08 RCW.