BILL NUMBER: AB 755	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 28, 2013
	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 13, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Ammiano

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2013

   An act to add Section 14527.1 to the Government Code, relating to
bridges.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 755, as amended, Ammiano. Suicide barriers.
   Existing law does not require bridges to be constructed with
suicide barriers. Existing law requires a project study report or a
project study report equivalent to be prepared prior to the inclusion
of a transportation capital improvement project in the regional
transportation improvement program, which is prepared by regional
agencies, or the interregional transportation improvement program,
which is prepared by the Department of Transportation. Existing law
requires the California Transportation Commission to adopt the state
transportation improvement program incorporating projects included in
the regional transportation improvement program and the
interregional transportation improvement program. Existing law also
requires the department to prepare, for approval by the commission, a
separate state highway operation and protection program for capital
improvements that are necessary to preserve and protect the state
highway system.
   This bill would require a project study report or project study
report equivalent that is prepared for any new project involving the
construction or reconstruction of a bridge, as defined, that is
included in the regional transportation improvement program, the
interregional transportation improvement program, or the state
highway operation and protection program to include a document
demonstrating that a suicide barrier was a feature considered during
the project's planning process. 
   Existing law provides that where a public entity is under a
mandatory duty imposed by an enactment that is designed to protect
against the risk of a particular kind of injury, the public entity is
liable for an injury of that kind proximately caused by its failure
to discharge the duty unless the public entity establishes that it
exercised reasonable diligence to discharge the duty.  
   This bill would provide that it does not impose a mandatory duty
in that regard. The bill would also provide that a public entity and
its employees are not liable for an injury arising from the design,
installation, or maintenance of a suicide barrier, or from the lack
of a suicide barrier, on a bridge. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 14527.1 is added to the Government Code, to
read:
   14527.1.  (a) A project study report or project study report
equivalent that is prepared for any new project involving the
construction or reconstruction of a bridge, as defined in subdivision
(b), included in a regional transportation improvement program, as
described in Section 14527, the interregional transportation
improvement program, as described in Section 14526, or the state
highway operation and protection program, as defined in Section
14526.5, shall include a document demonstrating that a suicide
barrier was a feature considered for each bridge during the project's
planning process.
   (b) "Bridge" means a publicly owned bridge on the national highway
system or the federal-aid highway system, or off system, a publicly
owned bridge classified as non-federal-aid highway system. 
   (c) This section does not impose a mandatory duty pursuant to
Section 815.6.  
   (d) A public entity and its employees shall not be liable for an
injury arising from the design, installation, or maintenance of a
suicide barrier, or from the lack of a suicide barrier, on a bridge.