Tyre ageing bill passes California Assembly

ERJ staff report (TB)

By Miles Moore, Senior Washington reporter

Sacramento, California -- The California Assembly has passed a bill by a one-vote margin that would require tyre dealers in the state to provide tyre age information on sales contracts.

Dealers that don't provide age information on every tyre they sell would face a fine of $250 for every violation, the bill states. Also, tyre buyers who don't receive tyre age information have the explicit right under the bill to bring a civil action against the dealer.

Sean Kane - president of Safety Research & Strategies Inc., which sponsored the bill - said the bill would provide safety benefits on two fronts.

“The bill will provide tyre buyers with information that is already out there, but that usually gets buried,” Mr. Kane said. “It also will help educate tire dealers because we find many of them aren't given the information and training they need on the effects of tyre aging.

“Eventually this will change how tyre aging is treated. The public gets to decide what is an acceptable level of risk.”

The Rubber Manufacturers Association, however, condemned the bill as contradictory, inconsistent and a way of drumming up business for trial lawyers.

“Proponents of this bill use fear-mongering to allege that tyres reaching a certain chronological age are dangerous,” the RMA said in a statement. “But the bill is inconsistent in its application.” Vehicle sales from an auto dealer or private party are exempt from the notification requirement, it noted, as are replacement tyre sales from auto dealers.

“These exemptions make the measure contradictory on its face and are implicit acknowledgement that chronological tyre age alone is not a hazard,” the RMA said.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Mike Davis, (D-Los Angeles), who introduced the legislation into the assembly, said the bill will be introduced in the California Senate in a few days. June 5 is the deadline for bills passed in the California Assembly to be transferred to the Senate, an RMA spokesman said.

The RMA spokesman also said the final vote tally on the bill could change because the California Assembly can keep the roll call open all day on bills.

The bill passed by a 41-28 vote in the 80-member assembly, meaning 41 votes is the least a bill can receive and still pass, he said.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)