Assembly Bill 162 by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez unanimously passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee today. The legislation seeks to reduce the number of deadly wrong-way driving accidents that occur on California’s highways and freeways.
“Wrong-way crashes are catastrophic and deadly,” said Rodriguez. “It has been over 25 years since California has taken a comprehensive look at ways to prevent these accidents and it is past-time for us to do something about it.”
Assembly Bill 162 requires the Department of Transportation to study wrong-way driving accidents—which has not been done in California since 1989-- and look at safety measures pursued by other states that could prevent wrong way driving accidents. The bill has been recently amended to accelerate the reporting timeline and require a preliminary report to be submitted to the legislature by December 1st of this year and a final report by July 1, 2016.
Amendments to the bill were taken in response to recent strings of wrong-way crashes in Sacramento and in San Diego that have taken the lives of 20 people since January.
“I’m frustrated that so many lives have been senselessly lost. We need to do everything we can to prevent any further loss of life. We need answers now, not later,” said Rodriguez.