BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 869
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 28, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
SB 869 (Yee) - As Amended: June 20, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 38-1
SUBJECT : Automotive repair dealers: airbags.
SUMMARY : Makes it a misdemeanor for any person who repairs a
vehicle's inflatable restraint system and fails to restore it to
its original operating condition and gives additional grounds
for the director of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to
discipline automotive repair dealers. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes it a misdemeanor for any person who undertakes for
compensation to repair a vehicle's inflatable restraint system
and who fails to restore it to its original operating
condition. This is punishable by a fine of $5000 or by
confinement in a county jail for one year or by both that fine
and confinement.
2)Adds that a conviction of a misdemeanor for the above or for
any person who installs or reinstalls for compensation, or
distributes or sells, any previously deployed airbag that is
part of an inflatable restraint system, if the person knows
that the airbag has been previously deployed, are grounds for
the director to deny, suspend, revoke, or place on probation
the registration of an automotive repair dealer and for the
director to suspend, revoke, or take other disciplinary action
against a license of an official lamp and brake adjusting
station.
EXISTING LAW
1)Licenses and regulates more than 35,000 automotive repair
dealers under the Automotive Repair Act by the Bureau of
Automotive Repair within the DCA.
2)Specifies grounds for which the director may deny,
suspend, revoke, or place on probation the registration
of an automotive repair dealer or the license of an
SB 869
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official lamp and brake adjusting station.
3)Establishes, in the vehicle code, a misdemeanor penalty
of up to one year in jail, a $5,000 fine, or both, for
any person who installs or reinstalls for compensation,
distributes or sells any previously deployed airbag in a
vehicle, if the person knows that the airbag has been
previously deployed.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author's office, "Nearly
1 in every 5 fatal accidents involves a vehicle with a missing
or malfunctioning airbag. Eighteen percent of fatal accidents
involved vehicles that lacked proper airbags as result of not
being replaced or properly replaced following a previous
accident.
"Consumers spend over $1,000 for replacement airbags and
sometimes do not receive them. Some dealers and repair shops
have even stuffed airbag compartments with aluminum cans, shoe
leather, packaging materials and paper. Many used cars being
offered for sale have been in accidents, then salvaged and
resold, possibly without airbags. It is up to California to
make a clear statement that airbag fraud is unacceptable."
Background . Additionally, a February 2008 Reader's Digest
article, Airbag Scams: Dashboard Danger, discussed several
accidents where a faulty airbag led to a fatality in an
automobile accident. In one case in San Diego, an 18-year old
man died in a car accident where the airbag compartments were
stuffed with paper. A forensic scientist concluded that
although he had not been wearing a seatbelt, had there been an
airbag in the truck, he would have survived. The article also
stated that a consumer is vulnerable to these types of fraud
whenever he or she buys a used vehicle or sends a wrecked one
for repairs. A con artist who steals a brand new single airbag
can make $1,000 or more.
In 2009, 10News in San Diego reported on a father and mother who
lost their son due to air bag fraud and were awarded a $15
million judgment against the owner of an auto repair shop.
Their son was killed in a car accident as a result of a
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fraudulent airbag repair in which the body shop filled the
steering wheel with paper instead of a new airbag. A 2008
investigation by National Public Radio uncovered other cases in
which repair shops had stuffed paper and other material into the
air bag compartment or left it empty.
Previous legislation . SB 427 (Negrete McLeod) of 2009 would
have established the same misdemeanor with the same penalties
for a violation as the current bill. Additionally, that bill
would have required the parts invoice for any replacement airbag
installed as part of the vehicle repair to be attached to the
final repair invoice given to a consumer. That bill was vetoed
by the Governor, citing that it was duplicative of existing law
and, therefore, added very little additional benefit to
consumers.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Center for Auto Safety (co-sponsor)
Certified Automotive Parts Association (co-sponsor)
Association of California Insurance Companies
Personal Insurance Federation of California
Trauma Foundation
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marina Wiant / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301