Bill Text: CA AB1160 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Vehicles: automated traffic enforcement systems.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 2-1)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1160 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB1160-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 1160 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 14, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Harper
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Gatto)
( Coauthor: Senator Huff
)
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to amend Section 21455.5 of the Vehicle Code, relating to
vehicles.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1160, as amended, Harper. Vehicles: automated traffic
enforcement systems.
Existing law authorizes the limit line, intersection, or other
places where a driver is required to stop to be equipped with an
automated traffic enforcement system, as defined, if the system meets
certain requirements. Existing law authorizes a governmental agency
to contract out the operation of the system under certain
circumstances, except for specified activities, that include, among
other things, establishing guidelines for selection of the location
of the system.
This bill would, beginning January 1, 2016, prohibit a
governmental agency from installing an automated traffic enforcement
system. The bill would authorize a governmental agency that is
operating an automatic traffic enforcement system on that date to
continue to do so after that date only if the agency begins
conducting a traffic safety study on or before February 28, 2016, at
each intersection where a system is in use to determine whether the
use of the system resulted in a reduction in the number of traffic
accidents involving failing to stop at a red light or failing to
stop at a red light when making a right turn at that
intersection. The bill would require the traffic safety study to
be completed on or before January 1, 2017. The bill
would require the governmental agency to terminate the use of an
automated traffic enforcement system at an intersection no later than
January 1, 2018, if the traffic safety study shows that the use of
the system did not reduce the number of traffic accidents that
occurred at that intersection by a statistically significant
number .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 21455.5 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
21455.5. (a) Except or provided in subdivision (k), the limit
line, the intersection, or a place designated in Section 21455, where
a driver is required to stop, may be equipped with an automated
traffic enforcement system if the governmental agency using the
system meets all of the following requirements:
(1) Identifies the system by signs posted within 200 feet of an
intersection where a system is operating that clearly indicate the
system's presence and are visible to traffic approaching from all
directions in which the automated traffic enforcement system is being
used to issue citations. A governmental agency using a system does
not need to post signs visible to traffic approaching the
intersection from directions not subject to the automated traffic
enforcement system. Automated traffic enforcement systems installed
as of January 1, 2013, shall be identified no later than January 1,
2014.
(2) Locates the system at an intersection and ensures that the
system meets the criteria specified in Section 21455.7.
(b) Prior to issuing citations under this section, a local
jurisdiction using an automated traffic enforcement system shall
commence a program to issue only warning notices for 30 days. The
local jurisdiction shall also make a public announcement of the
automated traffic enforcement system at least 30 days prior to the
commencement of the enforcement program.
(c) Only a governmental agency, in cooperation with a law
enforcement agency, may operate an automated traffic enforcement
system. A governmental agency that operates an automated traffic
enforcement system shall do all of the following:
(1) Develop uniform guidelines for screening and issuing
violations and for the processing and storage of confidential
information. Establish procedures to ensure compliance with those
guidelines. A governmental agency that operates an automated traffic
enforcement system installed on or before January 1, 2013 shall
establish those guidelines by January 1, 2014.
(2) Perform administrative functions and day-to-day functions,
including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Establishing guidelines for the selection of a location.
Commencing January 1, 2013, before installing an automated traffic
enforcement system the governmental agency shall make and adopt a
finding of fact establishing that the system is needed at a specific
location for reasons related to safety.
(B) Ensuring that the equipment is regularly inspected.
(C) Certifying that the equipment is properly installed and
calibrated, and is operating properly.
(D) Regularly inspecting and maintaining warning signs placed
pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a).
(E) Overseeing the establishment, change, and timing of signal
phases.
(F) Maintaining controls necessary to ensure that only those
citations that have been reviewed and approved by law enforcement are
delivered to violators.
(d) The activities listed in subdivision (c) that relate to the
operation of the system may be contracted out by the governmental
agency, if it maintains overall control and supervision of the
system. However, the activities listed in paragraph (1) of, and
subparagraphs (A), (D), (E), and (F) of paragraph (2) of, subdivision
(c) shall not be contracted out to the manufacturer or supplier of
the automated traffic enforcement system.
(e) The printed representation of computer-generated information,
video, or photographic images stored by an automated traffic
enforcement system does not constitute an out-of-court hearsay
statement by a declarant under Division 10 (commencing with Section
1200) of the Evidence Code.
(f) (1) Notwithstanding Section 6253 of the Government Code, or
any other law, photographic records made by an automated traffic
enforcement system shall be confidential, and shall be made available
only to governmental agencies and law enforcement agencies and only
for the purposes of this article.
(2) Confidential information obtained from the Department of Motor
Vehicles for the administration or enforcement of this article shall
be held confidential, and shall not be used for any other purpose.
(3) Except for court records described in Section 68152 of the
Government Code, the confidential records and information described
in paragraphs (1) and (2) may be retained for up to six months from
the date the information was first obtained, or until final
disposition of the citation, whichever date is later, after which
time the information shall be destroyed in a manner that will
preserve the confidentiality of any person included in the record or
information.
(g) Notwithstanding subdivision (f), the registered owner or any
individual identified by the registered owner as the driver of the
vehicle at the time of the alleged violation shall be permitted to
review the photographic evidence of the alleged violation.
(h) (1) A contract between a governmental agency and a
manufacturer or supplier of automated traffic enforcement equipment
shall not include a provision for the payment or compensation to the
manufacturer or supplier based on the number of citations generated,
or as a percentage of the revenue generated, as a result of the use
of the equipment authorized under this section.
(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to a contract that was entered
into by a governmental agency and a manufacturer or supplier of
automated traffic enforcement equipment before January 1, 2004,
unless that contract is renewed, extended, or amended on or after
January 1, 2004.
(3) A governmental agency that proposes to install or operate an
automated traffic enforcement system shall not consider revenue
generation, beyond recovering its actual costs of operating the
system, as a factor when considering whether or not to install or
operate a system within its local jurisdiction.
(i) A manufacturer or supplier that operates an automated traffic
enforcement system pursuant to this section shall, in cooperation
with the governmental agency, submit an annual report to the Judicial
Council that includes, but is not limited to, all of the following
information if this information is in the possession of, or readily
available to, the manufacturer or supplier:
(1) The number of alleged violations captured by the systems they
operate.
(2) The number of citations issued by a law enforcement agency
based on information collected from the automated traffic enforcement
system.
(3) For citations identified in paragraph (2), the number of
violations that involved traveling straight through the intersection,
turning right, and turning left.
(4) The number and percentage of citations that are dismissed by
the court.
(5) The number of traffic collisions at each intersection that
occurred prior to, and after the installation of, the automated
traffic enforcement system.
(j) If a governmental agency using an automated traffic
enforcement system has posted signs on or before January 1, 2013,
that met the requirements of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of this
section as it read on January 1, 2012, the governmental agency shall
not remove those signs until signs are posted that meet the
requirements specified in this section, as it reads on January 1,
2013.
(k) (1) Commencing January 1, 2016, a governmental agency shall
not install an automated traffic enforcement system.
(2) A governmental agency that is operating an automated traffic
enforcement system on January 1, 2016, may continue to operate the
automated traffic enforcement system after that date only if the
agency begins conducting, on or before February 28, 2016, a traffic
safety study at each intersection where an automated traffic
enforcement system is in use to determine whether the use of the
system resulted in a statistically significant reduction
in the number of traffic accidents when the primary collision
factor was a violation of subdivision (a) or (c) of Section 21453
at that intersection. The traffic study shall also
determine whether rear-end collisions occurring within 100 feet of
the intersection have increased. The methodology of the traffic
safety study shall account for factors other than the automated
traffic enforcement system that could have caused any
reduction in red-light running, including, but not limited to,
engineering countermeasures employed at the intersection, changes in
traffic volume, effects of weather, collisions caused by impairment,
statistical regression to the mean, and overall trends in red-light
running collision rates. The study shall use, at a minimum, three
years of data collected before the installation of the automated
traffic enforcement system, and the entire period after installation,
up to the date the study commences, if that data is available, and
shall adjust for any differences between the two periods. The
traffic safety study shall be conducted according to standards
consistent with the analysis of data approved by the federal National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration for automated traffic
enforcement systems. All raw data used for, and referenced in,
the study shall be clearly listed within the study to
allow peer review. The study shall be co mpleted on or
before January 1, 2017.
(3) If the traffic safety study shows does
not definitively show that the use of an automated traffic
enforcement system did not reduce reduced
the number of traffic accidents caused by red-light
running that occurred at an intersection equipped with an
automated traffic enforcement system by a statistically significant
number, or the study shows that there was an increase in rear-end
collisions , the governmental agency shall terminate the use of
the system at that intersection no later than January 1,
2018. 2018, and no violation captured by the system
after that date shall be used for prosecution.
(4) If the governmental agency uses an automated traffic
enforcement system to cite motorists for right-turn violations, the
agency shall, using the same criteria listed in paragraph (2),
include in the study, an analysis of collisions caused by motorists'
failure to stop before turning right on a red light in violation of
subdivision (a) or (c) of Section 21453. If the traffic safety study
does not definitively show that the use of the automated traffic
enforcement system reduced the number of traffic accidents caused by
motorists' failure to stop before turning right on a red light in
violation of subdivision (a) or (c) of Section 21453 at an
intersection equipped with an automated traffic enforcement system by
a statistically significant number, the governmental agency shall
terminate the use of the system to cite motorists for right turn
violations at that intersection on or before January 1, 2018, and no
violation captured by the system after that date shall be used for
prosecution.
