South Carolina General Assembly
103rd Session, 1979-1980

Bill 583

                    Current Status

Bill Number:               583
Ratification Number:       388
Act Number                 353
Introducing Body:          Senate
Subject:                   Relating to traffic tickets
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(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A353, R388, S583)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 56-7-10, 66-7-20, 56-7-30 AND 56 7-40, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO TRAFFIC TICKETS, SO AS TO FACILITATE CHANGING THE FORMAT OF THE UNIFORM TRAFFIC CITATION TO MEET CHANGING NEEDS, IMPROVE AUDITING PROCEDURES, AND INCREASE THE PENALTIES FOR MISHANDLING TICKETS FROM A FINE OF TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS TO A FINE OF NOT LESS THAN TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS OR IMPRISONMENT FOR NOT MORE THAN ONE YEAR OR BOTH FOR INTENTIONAL VIOLATIONS, AND BY A FINE OF NOT MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IF VIOLATIONS ARE INADVERTENT OR UNINTENTIONAL.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Uniform traffic tickets to be used

Section 1. Section 56-7-10 of the 1976 Code of Laws is amended to read:

"Section 56-7-10. There shall be a uniform traffic ticket used by all law enforcement officers in arrests for traffic offenses. No other ticket may be used for traffic offenses. The service of the uniform traffic ticket shall vest all traffic courts with jurisdiction to hear and to dispose of the charge for which such ticket was issued and served. This ticket shall be designed by the Department of Highways and Public Transportation and approved by the Attorney General."

Number and colors of copies to be used

Section 2. Section 56-7-20 of the 1976 Code of Laws is amended to read:

"Section 56-7-20. For purposes of this chapter, a traffic ticket shall consist of five copies, one of which shall be blue and shall be given to the vehicle operator who is the alleged traffic violator; one of which shall be yellow and shall be dispatched to the Department of Highways and Public Transportation for its records; one of which shall be white and shall be dispatched to the police agency of which the arresting officer is a part; one of which shall be green and shall be retained by the trial officer for his records; and one of which shall be pink and shall be dispatched by the police agency to the Department of Highways and Public Transportation for purposes of audit. Each ticket shall have a unique identifying number."

Printing, ordering and paying for tickets

Section 3. Section 56-7-30 of the 1976 Code of Laws is amended to read:

"Section 56-7-30. The Department of Highways and Public Transportation shall have the traffic tickets printed. Police agencies shall order tickets from the Department and shall record the identifying numbers of the tickets received by them. The cost of the tickets shall be paid by the police agency. The audit copy and the Department records copy shall be forwarded to the Department within ten days of the disposition of the case by final trial court action or by nolle prosequi. The head of each police agency shall be responsible for the forwarding of the audit copies and for conducting an annual inventory on December thirty-first of all tickets received but not yet disposed of by final trial court action or by nolle prosequi and for forwarding the results of the inventory on a form prescribed by the Department to the Department within ten days of the completion of the inventory."

Penalties

Section 4. Section 56-7-40 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"Section 56-7-40. Any person intentionally violating the provisions of Section 56-7-10 or Section 56-7-30 shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars nor more than fifteen hundred dollars or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both, for each ticket unaccounted for, or each use of a nonuniform ticket, or each failure to timely forward the Department records copy or audit copy of a ticket. If the failure to account for a ticket, or the use of a nonuniform ticket, or the failure to timely forward the Department records or audit copy of the ticket is inadvertent or unintentional, such misuse shall be triable in magistrate's court and upon conviction shall be punishable by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars. Any person charged with failing to timely forward the results of the annual inventory shall be tried in magistrate's court and upon conviction shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars."

Time effective

Section 5. This act shall take effect upon approval by the Governor.