• What's an autoette?
• You mean it wasn't illegal to ride in the trunk before 2007?
• When am I required to use a cell phone headset in the car?
• I heard the BAC level was dropping down to .04%.  Is that true?

Autoette

Establishes a definition of an “autoette” in the Vehicle Code and requires the department to issue regular license plates and registration to an autoette operated exclusively in the City of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island.

Requires the owner to surrender the license plates to the department when the vehicle is removed from the island and brought to the mainland.

Hybrid Vehicles HOV (Carpool) Lanes

Extends the sunset date for the clean air vehicle program to January 1, 2011. Allows an additional 10,000 hybrid stickers to be issued.

Salvage Certificate

Authorizes the following:

• an insurance company
• an occupational licensee of the department authorized by the insurance company, or
• a salvage pool authorized by the insurance company

that is unable to obtain a certificate of ownership or other evidence of ownership within 30 days following a total loss settlement, to request that the department issue a salvage certificate for the vehicle.

This request must be on a form provided by the department and signed under penalty of perjury. The request must include documentation that the requester has made at least two written attempts to obtain the certificate of ownership or other acceptable evidence of title.

Requires the department to issue a salvage certificate upon receipt of the properly executed request, the license plates and fees.

Cell Phones—Operative July 1, 2008

Requires the use of hands-free wireless phones as of July 1, 2008, with limited exceptions.

Commercial Driver License

Ensures immediate administrative driver licensing sanctions are imposed when any driver is operating a commercial vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .04% or greater.

Requires California to report convictions of commercial driver traffic violations to the home state of the commercial driver for sanctioning purposes.

Establishes the following:

1. A first conviction for driving any vehicle under the influence of drugs is cause for the disqualification of the commercial driving privilege for one year.
2. A commercial driver who is convicted of leaving the scene of an accident, regardless of whether the violation occurred in a commercial vehicle or the driver’s personal vehicle, is subject to the disqualification of the commercial driving privilege for one year.
3. A first conviction of gross vehicular manslaughter or vehicular manslaughter is cause for the disqualification of the commercial driving privilege for one year.

Eliminates the authority for the issuance of a restricted commercial driver’s license when the driving privilege is suspended or because the driver or driver’s family has a serious health problem (does not prohibit the issuance of a restricted Class C or M license; thereby allowing the commercial driver to operate a non-commercial vehicle).

Driver License

Removes the minimum age requirement for persons to consent to participate in the organ and tissue donor program.

Driver License Suspension

Increases the mandatory driver’s license suspension period to ten months for persons convicted of a first offense of Driving Under the Influence of alcohol if the individual’s blood alcohol concentration level was .20% or greater, and the court orders an enhanced alcohol treatment program.

Driving Infraction

Creates a new infraction for driving a motor vehicle while knowingly permitting a person to ride in the trunk. A passenger found guilty of riding in the trunk of a vehicle would be guilty of an infraction. Both the driver and passenger would be subject to fines pursuant to a specified schedule. A driver convicted of knowingly permitting passengers to ride in/on the trunk of a vehicle would receive one negligent operator point on his or her driving record.

Makes driving under age 21 with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.01% or greater a citable offense, and if convicted, the person would be guilty of an infraction subject to increased court fines. Currently subject to suspension under the Zero Tolerance Law. However, this would not be a point count, according to Vehicle Code §12810.

Emergency Vehicles

Requires drivers to take specific precautionary actions on a highway when passing a stopped emergency vehicle when the emergency lights are activated. Makes it an infraction for failure to comply with those requirements.

Reckless Driving/Racing

Increases penalties for first conviction of reckless driving or engaging in a speed contest resulting in specified injuries to a person other than the driver.

First-offenders would be subject to confinement in state prison or county jail for not less than 30 days nor more than 6 months, or by a fine of not less than $220 (reckless driving) or $500 (speed contest) nor more than $1000. The specified injuries which would incur these sentences are; loss of consciousness, concussion, bone fracture, protracted loss or impairment of function of a bodily member or organ, wound requiring extensive suturing, serious disfigurement, brain injury, and/or paralysis.

Records Access

Prohibits computer vendors, vehicle manufacturers and other specified entities from accessing information from a motor vehicle dealer’s computer system regarding the dealer’s customers. This is designed to prevent “data mining” from a dealer’s database without the dealer’s consent.

Allows requesters to have access to DUI conviction information for violations that occurred within the past ten (10) years. Currently, only law enforcement and the courts are able to access this information for a ten-year period.

For a complete list of new vehicle laws, please see the California DMV website here.