46.2-223 - Additional powers and duties of Commissioner.
§ 46.2-223. Additional powers and duties of Commissioner.
The Commissioner shall have the following powers and duties related totransportation safety:
1. To evaluate safety measures currently in use by all transport operators inall modes which operate in or through the Commonwealth, with particularattention to the safety of equipment and appliances and methods andprocedures of operation;
2. To engage in training and educational activities aimed at enhancing thesafe transport of passengers and property in and through the Commonwealth;
3. To cooperate with all relevant entities of the federal government,including, but not limited to, the Department of Transportation, the FederalRailway Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Coast Guard,and the Independent Transportation Safety Board in matters concerningtransportation safety;
4. To initiate, conduct, and issue special studies on matters pertaining totransportation safety;
5. To evaluate transportation safety efforts, practices, and procedures ofthe agencies or other entities of the government of the Commonwealth and makerecommendations to the Secretary of Transportation, the Governor, and theGeneral Assembly on ways to increase transportation safety consciousness orimprove safety practices;
6. To assist entities of state government and political subdivisions of theCommonwealth in enhancing their efforts to ensure safe transportation,including the dissemination of relevant materials and the rendering oftechnical or other advice;
7. To collect, tabulate, correlate, analyze, evaluate, and review the datagathered by various entities of the state government in regard totransportation operations, management, and accidents, especially theinformation gathered by the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department ofState Police, and the State Corporation Commission;
8. To develop, implement, and review, in conjunction with relevant state andfederal entities, a comprehensive highway safety program for theCommonwealth, and to inform the public about it;
9. To assist towns, counties and other political subdivisions of theCommonwealth in the development, implementation, and review of local highwaysafety programs as part of the state program;
10. To review the activities, role, and contribution of various stateentities to the Commonwealth's highway safety program and to report annuallyand in writing to the Governor and General Assembly on the status, progress,and prospects of highway safety in the Commonwealth;
11. To recommend to the Secretary of Transportation, the Governor, and theGeneral Assembly any corrective measures, policies, procedures, plans, andprograms which are needed to make the movement of passengers and property onthe highways of the Commonwealth as safe as practicable;
12. To design, implement, administer, and review special programs or projectsneeded to promote highway safety in the Commonwealth;
13. To integrate highway safety activities into the framework oftransportation safety in general; and
14. To administer the Traffic Safety Fund established pursuant to §46.2-749.2:10 and to accept grants, gifts, bequests, and other moneyscontributed to, deposited in, or designated for deposit in the Fund.
(1984, c. 778, § 46.1-40.4; 1989, c. 727; 1990, cc. 1, 317; 1998, c. 743.)