(PatriotWise.com) — California state Senator Scott Wiener has introduced a series of bills aimed at reducing the number of road traffic injuries and deaths in the state, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Among the bills the San Francisco Democrat introduced is one that would require all vehicles sold in California to include speed-throttling technology to limit how fast they can go.
Wiener told the LA Times that there was no reason for drivers to be permitted to exceed the speed limit by more than 10 mph. He said while people “can do whatever they want,” that shouldn’t mean they are “allowed to do it” just because they can.
The bill, SB 961, would require every passenger vehicle, bus, and truck sold or manufactured in the state to include the speed throttling technology beginning in 2027.
The technology uses GPS or cameras to verify the speed limit on a particular road and slow the vehicle down if the driver goes more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
Wiener told the LA Times that he would consider changes to his legislation, like opting for passive speed monitoring rather than active.
With active speed monitoring, the technology would cause a car exceeding the speed limit by more than 10 mph to slow down. With passive speed monitoring, an alarm would sound to warn the driver of the excessive speed.
The European Union passed a measure requiring passive speed monitoring for all vehicles sold in the EU starting in July.
Wiener’s bill will likely face opposition from trucking companies and organizations.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association president, Todd Spencer, told the LA Times that SB 961 was not the way to make California roads safer. Spencer’s group has advocated for increasing police on state roadways to monitor for speeding.
Spencer argued that there are good reasons for drivers to occasionally exceed the speed limit, including while switching lanes or moving away from “unsafe situations.”
Weiner’s legislation package, dubbed SAFER (Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reducation on California Streets), also includes a bill to require underride guardrails on large trucks to prevent smaller vehicles from plowing under them during a crash.
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