§ 31-3-80. Reserve Forces plates. (a) The administrator of the division of motor vehicles is empowered and authorized to make available to all active and retired members of the United States Reserve Forces of Rhode Island a special motor vehicle registration plate for any motor vehicle eligible for registration as an automobile or a commercial vehicle having a gross weight of eight thousand five hundred pounds (8,500 lbs.) or less.

(b) The special motor vehicle registration plate shall carry on it the designation "US Reserve Forces" and shall carry on it the titles, (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard) arranged on the left hand side of the plate from top to bottom in this order of precedence, with numerals to the right of the titles.

(c) The administrator of the division of motor vehicles shall issue the plate upon payment of a service charge of twenty dollars ($20.00) and a transfer charge of five dollars ($5.00) for the plate. All revenues shall be deposited as general revenues.

(d) For the purposes of this section an active or retired member of the United States Reserve Forces shall be defined as currently serving or having retired under honorable conditions from any of the Reserve Forces other than the Rhode Island Army or Air National Guard.

(e) In a national state of emergency, any active member of the United States Reserve Forces driving a vehicle bearing the special motor vehicle registration plate shall be authorized and empowered to travel upon the highways of the state notwithstanding any driving ban imposed by any state or municipal authority.

(f) No US Reserve Forces plates shall be issued until at least nine hundred (900) such plates have been ordered.

History of Section. (P.L. 2006, ch. 643, § 1.)