BILL ANALYSIS
AB 254
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Mike Eng, Chair
AB 254 (Jeffries) - As Amended: April 20, 2009
SUBJECT : Emergency vehicles: payment of tolls
SUMMARY : Exempts emergency vehicles from the payment of a toll
or charge on a vehicular crossing or toll highway while
responding to an emergency call. Specifically, this bill :
1)Exempts an emergency vehicles of toll charges, if all of the
following conditions are met;
a) The vehicle is properly identified or marked as an
emergency, including but not limited to external mounted
warning lights;
b) The vehicle is responding to or returning from an urgent
or emergency call or response or engaging in a fire station
cover assignment directly related to an emergency; and,
c) The operator of the vehicle determines that the urgent
use of the toll facility will likely improve the
availability or response and arrival time of the emergency
vehicle and its delivery of essential public safety
services to the public.
2)Authorizes a fire chief, police chief, or county sheriff, or
their designate to certify in writing that a vehicle was
exempt from a toll charge, if an operator of a toll facility
elects to bill an agency or department for use of the
facility.
3)Provides that written certification through the use of a
letter is to be accepted by the toll operator in lieu of
payment and is to be considered a public document.
4)Establishes that nothing contained in this bill is to prohibit
a toll operator and a local emergency provider from entering
into a specific local agreement or having a policy that meets
or exceeds the provisions above.
EXISTING LAW: Makes it unlawful for any person to refuse to pay
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tolls or other charges on any vehicular crossing or toll
highway. It is prima facie evidence of a violation of this
section for any person to enter upon any vehicular crossing
without either lawful money or other electronic toll payment
device associated with a valid Automatic Vehicle Identification
account with a balance sufficient to pay those tolls.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author, "emergency first responders
and their vehicles are routinely called upon to provide
essential services across California regardless of political
boundaries. When responding to emergency calls, emergency
vehicles such as fire trucks and police vehicles sometimes use
these tolled lanes and facilities as the quickest response
route. If they travel on a tolled road or bridge, these
vehicles are ticketed for a toll violation while responding to
an emergency call."
The author's office points out that this bill was developed
because of events that occurred during the recent emergency
response of wildfires in the Southern California area. During
these wildfires, emergency personnel from throughout the region
were dispersed to assist and aide local fire authorities, often
times having to use toll roads in the Orange County region to
access the affected locations.
The author adds that "in order to expunge and avoid tickets for
a toll violation while responding to an emergency call, the fire
chief or fire department must spend valuable time (typically in
the middle of fire season) researching, pulling incident logs,
contacting vehicle operators and dealing with bureaucracy."
During the most recent wildfires, while many local fire
departments (departments) had pre-existing agreements in place,
many other departments that helped during the wildfire did not
have those pre-existing agreements with the toll operator, the
Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) and subsequently received
toll charges for use of the toll facilities. Those charges were
later cleared after TCA determined that personnel were
responding to the fires during an emergency situation.
Under existing law, there are no statues that address exemption
of tolls by emergency vehicles during emergency responses on
toll facilities. Typically, local agreements between toll
agencies and emergency personnel have been developed to provide
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guidance and policy direction on this subject.
The TCA, one of the largest toll road operators in California
with its expansive 51 mile network of toll lanes miles, is
comprised of two public agencies, the San Joaquin Hills
Transportation Corridor Agency, which oversees the San Joaquin
Hills (State Route 73) Toll Road, and the Foothill/Eastern
Transportation Corridor Agency, which oversees the Foothill
(State Route 241) and Eastern (State Routes 241, 261, and 133)
Toll Roads.
Since creation of the toll network, the TCA has developed local
agreements that deal with "emergency vehicle" policy and the
creation of "non-revenue" accounts. TCA developed "non-revenue"
accounts with the emergency response and law enforcement
agencies that have jurisdiction on their roads. Among those
agencies are the local California Highway Patrol (CHP) offices,
Orange County Sheriff Department, and the Orange County Fire
Authority.
These identified non-revenue agencies have accounts through
which TCA waives their tolls when they use the toll roads. The
transaction is processed through the account either by a
transponder or plate match. If a department provides the TCA
with a plate list in advance, that data is stored so as to
prevent issuing a violation notice. Each month TCA provides
them with a statement of transactions which the non-revenue
account agencies review and then certify specific transactions
as being "emergency" transactions and in accordance with their
agreement.
In situations where emergency vehicles and their corresponding
agency do not have a non-revenue account, those events will be
handle on a case by case basis. Often times a department can
contact the toll authority when a violation notice has been
received and have the incident cleared, if it is determined that
personnel was responding to an emergency.
Other toll agencies, such as the Orange County Transportation
Authority (OCTA), which operates the 91 Express Lanes, a 10-mile
tollway located between the Orange and Riverside County border,
have technology in place that allow emergency personnel to be
distinguish through their license plates. Despite technology
that allows for plate recognition, toll facility staff must
still manually verify and coordinate with emergency personnel to
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assess emergency usage.
In opposition, the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), point
out that they are "concerned that this bill inserts state
oversight into a local agreement that in our opinion works well.
It works well because OCFA and TCA have chosen to work
cooperatively, under an agreement that governs the usage of the
toll roads by OCFA's emergency vehicles. During large
incidents, when mutual aid has been provided, both parties have
worked to ensure that vehicles from other agencies were not
cited. And if cited while working on an emergency in our
community, then those violations are waived."
Committee comments :
1)Despite glitches in some local pre-existing agreements that
have led to the issuance of toll violation charges and
subsequent fines to emergency personnel departments, such
incidents have been corrected once contact and coordination
has occurred among the toll agency and emergency personnel.
At no time has a law enforcement agency or fire department had
to pay a toll violation and fine if such usage has been
justified. Considering the volume of emergency personnel that
use toll facilities throughout the state and the long history
of interaction that has existed, local agreements have proven
to be effective.
2)If a local agreement does not exist between a fire department
and a toll agency it is difficult to eliminate administrative
burdens and reduce coordination, since a violation and toll
collection process is completely automated and the on-road
staff does not have the ability or physical means to waive a
toll. Moreover, electronic video enforcement system has no
way of identifying an emergency vehicle, nor have the ability
to determine if the vehicle is actually responding to an
emergency or not.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
City of Murrieta
Fire Districts Association of California
Peace Officer's Research Association of California
San Bernardino County Fire Department
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Opposition
Orange County Fire Authority
Analysis Prepared by : Alejandro Esparza / TRANS. / (916)
319-2093