BILL ANALYSIS
AB 134
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 22, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 134 (Blakeslee) - As Amended: April 2, 2009
Policy Committee: Local
GovernmentVote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill makes parents or guardians responsible for illegal
operation of all off-highway vehicles (OHVs) by children under
14. Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes it a violation for a parent or guardian of a child under
the age of 14 to allow a child to operate an OHV without being
able to reach the vehicle controls.
2)Requires fines of $35 for the first violation, $35 to $50 for
a second violation, and $50 to $75 for the third and
subsequent violations. Provides that an OHV violation will
not result in a violation point count on a drivers' record.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Minor state and enforcement costs and penalty revenues. Local
costs would not be state-reimbursable.
2)Programming costs to DMV to receive information on convictions
for these new violations would be minimal and absorbable.
COMMENTS
1)Background . OHVs consist mainly of dirt bikes, ATVs, sand
mobiles, snow mobiles, and karts. Existing law requires that
an OHV operator must be able to reach and operate all controls
necessary to safely operate the vehicle. However, with the
exception of ATVs, it does not generally hold parents
accountable for a child's violation of this requirement.
AB 134
Page 2
AB 2755 (Blakeslee, Statues of 2006 addressed this issue with
respect to ATVs. Specifically, it prohibited a parent or
guardian of a child under the age of 14 from allowing that
child to operate an ATV without direct adult supervision and
without the child having met existing child safety
requirements. Prior to this legislation, an infraction for
illegal ATV use by a child under 14 was assessed against a
child rather than the parent or guardian of the offending
child. An effect of AB 2755 was to allow enforcement officers
to ticket those responsible for supervising these children.
2)Rationale. The author asserts that this bill builds on the
success AB 2755 by making parents or guardians of a child
under 14 responsible for the child's safe operation of all
OHVs.
Analysis Prepared by : Brad Williams / APPR. / (916) 319-2081