This section applies to schoolbus, school pupil activity bus, youth bus, general public paratransit vehicle certificates, and a certificate for a vehicle used for the transportation of developmentally disabled persons.

(a) Any driver or applicant who has received a notice of refusal, suspension, or revocation, may, within 15 days after the mailing date, submit to the department a written request for a hearing. Failure to demand a hearing within 15 days is a waiver of the right to a hearing.

Terms Used In California Vehicle Code 13371

  • bus: is a ny vehicle, including a trailer bus, designed, used, or maintained for carrying more than 15 persons including the driver. See California Vehicle Code 233
  • Department: means the Department of Motor Vehicles except, when used in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 2100) of Division 2 and in Divisions 11 (commencing with Section 21000), 12 (commencing with Section 24000), 13 (commencing with Section 29000), 14 (commencing with Section 31600), 14. See California Vehicle Code 290
  • driver: is a person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. See California Vehicle Code 305
  • 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.
  • General public paratransit vehicle: means any motor vehicle designed for carrying no more than 24 persons and the driver, that provides local transportation to the general public, including transportation of pupils at or below the 12th-grade level to or from a public or private school or school activity, under the exclusive jurisdiction of a publicly owned and operated transit system through one of the following modes: dial-a-ride, subscription service, or route-deviated bus service. See California Vehicle Code 336
  • Highway: is a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See California Vehicle Code 360
  • instruction: includes classroom driver education, in-vehicle driver training, and correspondence study. See California Vehicle Code 310.6
  • paratransit vehicle: is a passenger vehicle, other than a bus, schoolbus, school pupil activity bus, youth bus, general public paratransit vehicle, or taxicab that is both of the following:

    California Vehicle Code 462

  • Person: includes a natural person, firm, copartnership, association, limited liability company, or corporation. See California Vehicle Code 470
  • representative: is a ny person regularly employed by a manufacturer or distributor for the purpose of negotiating or promoting the sale of the manufacturer's or distributer's vehicles to their franchisees or for regularly supervising or contacting franchisees or prospective franchisees in this state for any purpose. See California Vehicle Code 512
  • school pupil activity bus: is a ny motor vehicle, other than a schoolbus, operated by a common carrier, or by and under the exclusive jurisdiction of a publicly owned or operated transit system, or by a passenger charter-party carrier, used under a contractual agreement between a school and carrier to transport school pupils at or below the 12th-grade level to or from a public or private school activity, or used to transport pupils to or from residential schools, when the pupils are received and discharged at off-highway locations where a parent or adult designated by the parent is present to accept the pupil or place the pupil on the bus. See California Vehicle Code 546
  • schoolbus: is a motor vehicle designed, used, or maintained for the transportation of any school pupil at or below the 12th grade level to or from a public or private school or to or from public or private school activities, except the following:

    California Vehicle Code 545

  • vehicle: is a device by which any person or property may be propelled, moved, or drawn upon a highway, excepting a device moved exclusively by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See California Vehicle Code 670
  • youth bus: is a ny bus, other than a schoolbus, designed for and when actually carrying not more than 16 persons and the driver, used to transport children at or below the 12th-grade level directly from a public or private school to an organized nonschool-related youth activity within 25 miles of the school or directly from a location which provides the organized nonschool-related youth activity to a public or private school within 25 miles of that location. See California Vehicle Code 680

(1) Upon receipt by the department of the hearing request, the department may stay the action until a hearing is conducted and the final decision has been rendered by the Certificate Action Review Board pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d). The department shall not stay an action when there is reasonable cause to believe the stay would pose a significant risk to the safety of pupils being transported in a schoolbus, school pupil activity bus, youth bus, or persons being transported in a general public paratransit vehicle.

(2) An applicant or driver is not entitled to a hearing whenever the action by the department is made mandatory by this article or any other applicable law or regulation except where the cause for refusal is based on failure to meet medical standards or excessive and habitual use of or addiction to alcoholic beverages, narcotics, or dangerous drugs.

(b) The department shall appoint a hearing officer to conduct the hearing in accordance with Section 14112. After the hearing, the hearing officer shall prepare and submit findings and recommendations to the department.

(c) The department shall mail, as specified in Section 22, a copy of the hearing officer’s findings and recommendations to the driver or applicant and to the driver or applicant’s hearing representative, either of whom may file a statement of exception to the findings and recommendations within 24 days after the mailing date.

(d) (1) The Certificate Action Review Board consists of the following three members: a chairperson appointed by the director of the department, a member appointed by the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, and a member appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

(2) After a hearing, the board shall review the findings and recommendations of the hearing officer, and any statement of exception, and make a decision concerning disposition of the action taken by the department, which decision shall be final. At this stage, no evidence shall be heard that was not presented at the hearing, unless the person wishing to present the new evidence establishes, to the satisfaction of the board, that it could not have been obtained with due diligence prior to the hearing.

(Amended by Stats. 2005, Ch. 66, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2006.)

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