Bill Text: NJ A4342 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires certain motor vehicles to install rear-seat detection systems.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-10 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee [A4342 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4342-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman SHANIQUE SPEIGHT
District 29 (Essex and Hudson)
Assemblyman REGINALD W. ATKINS
District 20 (Union)
SYNOPSIS
Requires certain motor vehicles to install rear-seat detection systems.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act requiring certain motor vehicles to install rear-seat detection systems and supplementing Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. During summer months, the interior of motor vehicles can reach extreme temperatures that are dangerous to children and pets that are left unattended in the vehicle. Moreover, as temperatures have progressively increased in recent years, the risk of pediatric vehicular heatstroke has become increasingly pronounced.
b. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on average, 38 children die each year from heatstroke while trapped in overheated cars in the United States.
c. Regrettably, many of these deaths are preventable, as roughly half of all pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths since 1998 occurred after a child was unknowingly or mistakenly left in the vehicle.
d. In response, industry stakeholders, including the Association of Global Automakers and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, have voluntarily agreed to install rear-seat reminder systems in nearly all motor vehicles sold in the United States by 2025, which systems would remind parents and caregivers not to leave their child or pet in the vehicle.
e. In November 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included a requirement for all new passenger motor vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight to be equipped with a system to alert the operator to check rear-designated seating positions after the vehicle engine is off. However, despite its laudable goals, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act does not explicitly require the system to detect the presence of unattended occupants.
f. The installation of rear-seat detection systems in new motor vehicles, which systems detect and alert the presence of unattended occupants, would save countless lives by reducing the number of children and pets who are unknowingly or mistakenly left unattended in a vehicle.
g. To ensure the safety of children and pets from overheating in unattended vehicles, it is necessary and appropriate to require rear-seat detection systems to be installed in all passenger automobiles manufactured in this State.
2. As used in P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):
"Chief administrator" means the chief administrator of the commission.
"Commission" means the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission established and created by section 4 of P.L.2003, c.13 (C.39:2A-4).
"Passenger automobile" has the same meaning as defined in R.S.39:1-1.
"Rear-seat detection system" means a system designed to detect the presence of an unattended occupant in the passenger compartment of a passenger automobile after the engine or motor is deactivated and which system engages a warning to alert the driver of the unattended occupant.
3. a. All passenger automobiles manufactured in this State after the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be equipped with a rear-seat detection system, as required pursuant to section 4 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
b. Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, or order to the contrary, no passenger automobile manufactured on or before the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be required to install a rear-seat detection system.
4. a. The chief administrator shall prescribe the functional design specifications to be included in the rear-seat detection system required pursuant to section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), except that the rear-seat detection systems shall:
(1) be capable of detecting the presence of an unattended occupant in the passenger compartment of the passenger automobile after the engine or motor is deactivated;
(2) include auditory, visual, and haptic warnings to notify individuals inside and outside of the passenger automobile of the presence of an unattended occupant within the automobile; and
(3) be unable to be disabled, overridden, reset, or recalibrated in such a way that the system will no longer detect the presence of an unattended occupant of the passenger compartment of the automobile or engage an auditory, visual, or haptic warning inside or outside of the passenger automobile.
b. In prescribing the functional design specifications to be included in the rear-seat detection system, the chief administrator may also consider requiring the system to include an additional warning to:
(1) notify emergency response agencies within the general vicinity of the passenger automobile of the presence of an unattended occupant in the passenger automobile; and
(2) provide the geographical location of the passenger automobile to the emergency response agencies in a manner that allows for an emergency response.
5. The commission shall adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), rules and regulations consistent with the purposes of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill). The rules and regulations adopted pursuant to P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be consistent with any rules and regulations promulgated by the United States Secretary of Transportation.
6. This act shall take effect two years after the date of enactment, but the Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission may take such anticipatory actions as needed to effectuate the provisions of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires all new passenger automobiles manufactured in this State to be equipped with a rear-seat detection system that detects the presence of an unattended occupant in the passenger compartment of the automobile and engages a warning to alert the driver.
Under the bill, the Chief Administrator (chief administrator) of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission would be required to prescribe the functional design specifications to be included in the rear-seat detection system. However, the bill requires the rear-seat detection system to: (1) be capable of detecting the presence of an unattended occupant in the passenger compartment of the passenger automobile after the vehicle engine or motor is deactivated; (2) include auditory, visual, and haptic warnings to notify individuals inside and outside of the passenger automobile of the presence of an unattended occupant within the automobile; and (3) be unable to be disabled, overrode, reset, or recalibrated to prevent the detection or warning of the presence of an unattended occupant.
The bill also permits the chief administrator to require the rear-seat detection system to include an additional warning to alert emergency response agencies in the general vicinity of the automobile and provide the geographical location of the automobile in a manner that allows for an emergency response.
This bill would take effect two years after the date of enactment. Any passenger automobile manufactured before this date would not be required to install a rear-seat detection system.
