California Assembly Bill AB1677 Amended / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AB 1677AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 20, 2016 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ting (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Chiu) (Principal coauthor: Senator Hill) JANUARY 19, 2016 An act to add Section 34505.2 to the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1677, as amended, Ting. Vehicles: tour buses: safety inspections. Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to regulate the safe operation of tour buses, as defined, and requires the department to adopt rules and regulations relating to the equipment and maintenance of tour buses. At least once every 13 months, existing law requires the department to inspect every maintenance facility or terminal of any person who at any time operates any bus, including a tour bus, and makes it unlawful for any person to operate a bus without this inspection having been conducted. In addition to the systematic inspection required of all motor carriers, existing law requires tour bus operators to require each tour bus to be inspected at least every 45 days, or more often if necessary to ensure safe operation. This bill would require the department to develop protocols, in consultation with representatives of local  government, to allow for the inspection of tour buses by a designated local agency of the local jurisdiction in which the tour bus operates, and would require these protocols to include, at a minimum, a requirement that, upon completion of an inspection of a tour bus, the designated local agency report its findings to the Public Utilities Commission. The bill would provide that any inspection conducted by a designated local agency pursuant to these protocols shall be in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other inspection requirements imposed under law.   governments in jurisdictions where tour buses operate, for entering into memoranda of understand   ing with local governments to allow the department to, upon the request of the local government, increase the number of the locally operating tour buses that are being   inspected by the department. The bill would prohibit any inspection conducted pursuant to these provisions from being duplicative of any inspection conducted by the department to meet those specified existing inspection requirements.  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 34505.2 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read: 34505.2. (a)  The   In furtherance of the requirements specified in subdivision (c) of Section 34501, the  Department of the California Highway Patrol shall develop protocols, in consultation with representatives of local  government, to allow for the inspection of tour buses by a designated local agency of the local jurisdiction in which the tour bus operates. The protocols shall include, at a minimum, a requirement that, upon completion of an inspection of a tour bus, the designated local agency report its findings to the Public Utilities Commission.   governments in jurisdictions where tour buses operate, for entering into memoranda of understanding with local governments to allow the department to, upon the request of the local government, increase the number of the locally operating tour buses that are being inspected by the department.  (b) Any inspection conducted  by a designated local agency  pursuant to  the protocols developed under  subdivision (a) shall  be in addition to, and not in lieu of, any inspection requirements imposed under this code or any regulations adopted under this code relating to motor carrier safety.   not be duplicative of an inspection conducted by the department to meet the requirements specified in subdivision (c) of Section 34501.