Emmerson measure would slash tire pressure fines

10:00 PM PST on Saturday, February 12, 2011

By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Car repair shops cited for failing to verify customers' tire pressure would face much smaller penalties under an Inland Southern California lawmaker's legislation introduced this week.

The California Air Resources Board approved tire inflation rules in 2009 as a way to improve motorists' mileage and eliminate an estimated 700,000 tons of heat-trapping emissions linked to global warming. The regulations took effect last September.

Violators face stiff penalties -- jail time and up to a $1,000 fine. None of the more than 30,000 auto repair shops in the state have been punished so far, according to the state Bureau of Automotive Repair, which is enforcing the rule.

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An Inland legislator wants lesser fines for shops that fail to comply with a rule on checking vehicles' tire pressure. "That's just ridiculous on the surface," state Sen. Bill Emmerson says, referring to possible jail time and a $1,000 fine for violators.

But state Sen. Bill Emmerson called the proposed penalties a bureaucratic overreach.

"They criminalize it. That's just ridiculous on the surface," said Emmerson, R-Hemet, who said he has heard from worried tire dealers. His bill would set a $20 fine for a first offense and a maximum $50 fine for subsequent violations.

Air board spokesman Dimitri Stanich had no comment on the bill. The tire-pressure rule, he said, will help the state meet the goals of California's landmark global-warming law, known as AB 32.

"This is just an important way to improve safety and reduce greenhouse gases," he said.

The 2009 regulation requires car shops to keep records showing that they checked the tire pressure of customers' vehicles. They have to use gauges accurate to within two pounds per square inch.

Ejnar Fink-Jensen, executive director of the California Tire Dealers Association, said his members "are not happy" with the rule.

"That is just another one of those things that gives them a lot of paperwork," Fink-Jensen said.

Department of Consumer Affairs spokesman Russ Heimerich said Bureau of Automotive Repair inspectors have warned some shop owners about the rule after customers complained.

"So far we haven't had any need to take disciplinary action other than sending representatives to the office and telling them to comply with the law," he said.

Besides reducing the potential fines, Emmerson's bill would require car shops to inflate a customer's tire only if it was at least five pounds low on air. Also, the shops' gauges would have to be accurate to within four pounds, not two.

Reach Jim Miller at 916-445-9973 or jmiller@PE.com

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