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An Act To Promote the Safety of Deaf or Hard-of-hearing Drivers
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 29-A MRSA §1404,  as amended by PL 2005, c. 606, Pt. B, §4, is further amended to read:
§ 1404. Coded licenses
The Secretary of State shall provide that a license issued to:
 
1. Under 21.   A person less than 21 years of age bears a distinctive color code; and
 
2. Prior convictions.   A person convicted of operating under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs or with an excessive blood-alcohol level, as defined in section 2453, subsection 2, within 10 years of the date the license is issued, reissued or returned after a period of suspension bears a coded notation of that fact.
 
The Secretary of State may, at the request of a licensee, remove the coded notation from the license of a person convicted for a first operating-under-the-influence offense as defined in section 2453, subsection 2 after 6 years from the date of the conviction if the person has not been convicted or adjudicated of the offense of speeding more than 15 miles per hour over the maximum speed limit or any offense described under section 2551-A, subsection 1, paragraph A or had a license suspended or revoked within that 6-year period.; and
 
3.   Deaf and hard-of-hearing.     A person who has provided documentation to the Secretary of State from a physician that the person is deaf or hard-of-hearing bears a coded notation of that fact.
 
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Secretary of State, for a person who has documentation from a physician that the person is deaf or hard-of-hearing, to place a coded notation of that fact on that person's license.