CHAPTER 164

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 46.1-278 and 46.1-280, as amended, of
the Code of Virginia and to further amend the Code of Virginia by
adding a section numbered 46.1-278.1, the amended and new sections
relating to the specifications and performance ability of brakes and
other holding equipment to be used on certain motor vehicles and
combinations thereof; and to repeal § 46.4-279, relating to the same
subject matters.

[H 142]

Approved March 12, 1968

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 46.1-278 and 46.1-280, as amended, of the Code of Virginia
be amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia be further
amended by adding a section numbered 46.1-278.1, the amended and new
sections being as follows:

§ 46.1-278. On a dry, hard, approximately level stretch of highway
free from loose material, the service * braking system shall be capable of
stopping * a motor vehicle or combination of vehicles at all times and
under all conditions of loading at a speed of twenty miles per hour within
* the following distances:

(a) Passenger motor vehicles except buses and antique vehicles as
defined in § 46.1-1 (15a), twenty-five feet.

Buses, trucks, and tractor trucks, forty feet.

(c) Motor vehicles registered or qualified to be registered as antique
vehicles under § 46.1-1 (15a) when equipped with two-wheel brakes,
forty five feet.

(d) All combinations of vehicles, fifty feet.

§ 46.1-278.1. Every motor vehicle and combination of vehicles,
except motorcycles, shall be equipped with holding devices adequate to
hold the vehicle or vehicles on any grade on which it is operated, under
all conditions of loading on a surface free from snow, ice or loose material.

§ 46.1-280. Brakes on trailers——(a) Every semitrailer or trailer or
separate vehicle attached by a drawbar, chain or coupling to a towing
vehicle other than a farm tractor or a vehicle not required to obtain an
annual registration certificate for license plates under § 46.1-45 and
having an actual gross weight of three thousand pounds or more, shall be
equipped with brakes controlled or operated by the driver of the towing
vehicle which shall conform to the specifications set forth in * § 46.1-278
and shall be of a type approved by the Superintendent. Provided, however,
that farm trailers used exclusively for hauling raw agricultural produce
from farm to farm or farm to packing shed and/or processing plant
within the normal growing area of said packing shed or processing plant
and trailers or semitrailers drawn by a properly licensed motor vehicle
which are exempt under the provisions of § 46.1-45 (h), shall be exempt
from the requirements of this section.

(b) “Gross weight” for the purpose of this section includes the load
upon such semitrailer, trailer or separate vehicle.

(c) This section shall not apply to any vehicle being towed for
repairs, or in a bona fide emergency.

2. § 46.1-279 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.