BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1854
Author: Brownley (D)
Amended: 5/3/12 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMM. : 9-0, 6/12/12
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Harman, Kehoe, Lowenthal,
Pavley, Rubio, Simitian, Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/10/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Vehicles: inflatable restraint systems
SOURCE : Los Angeles District Attorneys Office
DIGEST : This bill makes it illegal to rewire an airbag
safety system to show that the airbag is functional when it
is not.
ANALYSIS : AB 1471 (Havice), Chapter 449, Statutes of
1999 made it illegal for a person knowingly to install or
reinstall for compensation, sell, or distribute a
previously deployed vehicle inflatable restraint system
(airbag) and subjected the person to a misdemeanor
punishable by a $5,000 fine and a one-year jail sentence or
both.
This bill expands existing law to include within the above
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AB 1854
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misdemeanor:
1.Rewiring, tampering with, altering, or modifying a
vehicle's computer system or airbag system, including its
on-board system performance indicators, to show falsely
that the airbag system is working.
2.Knowingly distributing or selling a previously deployed
airbag component that will no longer meet the
manufacturer's form or function for proper operations.
Comments
Federal law requires car makers in the United States to
install both driver- and front passenger-side airbags
because they have been shown to help prevent injuries
during a crash. In some areas of the state, however, law
enforcement discovered that some repair shops were
installing or reinstalling, previously deployed airbag
systems in their entirety, an act that frequently resulted
in fatal or near fatal injuries when the airbags failed to
function properly in a crash. To address this problem, the
Legislature passed AB 1471 (Havice) in 1999, which made it
a crime to knowingly install or reinstall, for
compensation, any previously deployed airbag that is part
of an inflatable restraint system.
Proponents of this bill report that in order to get around
this existing law, some unscrupulous salvage vehicle
rebuilders are now no longer installing an entire
previously deployed airbag system. Instead they are using
individual components from previously deployed airbag
systems and rewiring the onboard computer so that it
appears as though the vehicle's airbag system is
functioning properly when it in fact it is not. The author
notes that judges have rebuffed the efforts of prosecutors
to take legal action against such fraudulent activity
because of the lack of a legal prohibition against such
actions.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/25/12)
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Los Angeles District Attorney's Office (source)
California Auto Dismantlers and Recycle Alliance
California Police Chiefs Association
Consumer Federation of California
Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety
Crime Victims Alliance
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/10/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Beth Gaines,
Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell, Grove, Hagman,
Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jones, Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell,
Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Pan, Perea,
Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson,
Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada,
John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cook, Fletcher, Furutani, Jeffries,
Norby, Olsen, V. Manuel Pérez
JJA:n 6/25/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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