South Carolina § 56-35-50 - Enforcement.

§ 56-35-50. Enforcement.

(A) The State Transport Police Division of the Department of Public Safety is primarily responsible for enforcing the provisions of this chapter. An officer or agent of the State Transport Police that observes a vehicle operator violating the provisions of this chapter is authorized to issue a citation to the offender. The provisions of this chapter do not apply to a commercial diesel vehicle idling on the premises of a restricted access facility or in areas on the private property of a business that are generally designed and intended for commercial vehicle access, loading or unloading when the facility or business is located at least five hundred feet away from any church, school, playground, daycare facility, or hospital.

(B) The officer must inform the individual receiving the citation that he has the option, at that time, to elect to pay his fine directly to the Department of Public Safety or to receive a hearing in magistrates court. If the individual at the time the citation is issued elects to pay his fine directly to the Department of Public Safety within twenty-eight days, as specified on the citation, no assessments may be added to the original fine pursuant to this section. The fine may be deposited with the arresting officer or a person the Department of Public Safety may designate. Within forty-five days of collection, fifty dollars of the monies collected by the Department of Public Safety must be forwarded to the Department of Health and Environmental Control for deposit in the Diesel Idling Reduction Fund, twenty-five dollars of the monies collected must be deposited into an account to be used by the Department of Public Safety's State Transport Police Division in support of the Idling Restrictions for Commercial Diesel Vehicles program which at the end of a fiscal year does not lapse to the general fund, but is instead carried forward to the succeeding fiscal year.

(C)(1) Magistrates have jurisdiction of all contested violations of this chapter. Where a contested hearing is requested, any fine imposed is subject to all assessments and surcharges applicable by law. The fine, surcharges, and assessments shall be distributed as set forth in the applicable law.

(2) If the fine is not paid in full to the Department of Public Safety within forty-five days after conviction, the driver's license of the vehicle operator found in violation of this chapter must be suspended. The suspension continues until the fine is paid in full.

(D) The State Transport Police shall use the citation form referenced in Section 56-1-4160(G) for idling violations. The Department of Public Safety must electronically transmit to the Department of Motor Vehicles all tickets issued pursuant to this section. The Department of Public Safety and the Department of Motor Vehicles must work together to develop an electronic exchange of information over the next two years.

HISTORY: 2008 Act No. 234, SECTION 6, eff upon approval (became law without the Governor's signature on May 22, 2008).