Please call to stop or amend bill AB 1595!

[200MPHTape]

The bill in its current form WILL be amended and changed. I've had conversations with a few people in the know. They assure me that changes are in the works. Most likely the only rule that will remain will be the helmet requirement. That is still a problem for R-3. I will be exploring the possability for special dispensation for rescue groups like ours.

Just curios as to why you couldn't wear a wired helmet like the pit crews in Na$crap? Then you would have hands free com. at the patient .

[SPONSOR]

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[JPBart]

It's not that we can't wear helmets and have them wired. There are issues though. We can't put a helmet on someone strapped to a backboard. A big part of transporting a patient is keeping an eye on them to make sure they are stable. Hard to do that effectively wearing a helmet. Crawling over tough terrain having a helmet on impedes your vision and makes it harder to get over or around an obstacle.

When youre racing you are focused on what's right in front of you. When you are doing search and rescue you are trying to see everywhere for a sign or clue. Seeing that motion or flash of light out of the corner of your eye can make all the difference. Looking over at your patient when you need to be able to really look at them and ask them how they are doing is difficult wearing a helmet but easy when you have a full range of view.

There are probably 100 examples where a helmet impedes what we do. Come out to an event and ride along in one of our utv's and you will see the difference it makes. I am a big safety advocate and insisted everyone wear a helmet when I first got my utv. After a few years of responding to calls, searching for people in really tough terrain and transporting a lot of people I changed my mind. I have never once come close to rolling it. Our utv's are big, heavy, have great suspension and are not even close to being fast. I would feel differently if the vehicles were unstable in any way. If I were in a short wheelbase utv I would likely feel differently. I would never drive a Rhino without a helmet. Our Polaris Ranger Crews are a totally different vehicle.

We could wear helmets and wire them. Intercom headsets simply work better for what we do.

[NIKAL]

It's not that we can't wear helmets and have them wired. There are issues though. We can't put a helmet on someone strapped to a backboard. A big part of transporting a patient is keeping an eye on them to make sure they are stable. Hard to do that effectively wearing a helmet. Crawling over tough terrain having a helmet on impedes your vision and makes it harder to get over or around an obstacle.

When youre racing you are focused on what's right in front of you. When you are doing search and rescue you are trying to see everywhere for a sign or clue. Seeing that motion or flash of light out of the corner of your eye can make all the difference. Looking over at your patient when you need to be able to really look at them and ask them how they are doing is difficult wearing a helmet but easy when you have a full range of view.

There are probably 100 examples where a helmet impedes what we do. Come out to an event and ride along in one of our utv's and you will see the difference it makes. I am a big safety advocate and insisted everyone wear a helmet when I first got my utv. After a few years of responding to calls, searching for people in really tough terrain and transporting a lot of people I changed my mind. I have never once come close to rolling it. Our utv's are big, heavy, have great suspension and are not even close to being fast. I would feel differently if the vehicles were unstable in any way. If I were in a short wheelbase utv I would likely feel differently. I would never drive a Rhino without a helmet. Our Polaris Ranger Crews are a totally different vehicle.

We could wear helmets and wire them. Intercom headsets simply work better for what we do.

This law is more then just helmets. They dont want you to added aftermarket rear seat kits like you would do with the Rhino, Ranger, Teryx ect... Also they are wanting to require all passengers feet must touch the floor.

How is this going to work with a backboard? This will mean a two seat machine will only be able to transport two people. You wont be able to use the bed area as any form of transportation device.

Many are saying since Kawasaki was a primary sponsor and supporter of the new law, that much of this was done so they would sell more factory 4 seat UTV's. I dont know if this is true or not. But at this point Polaris and Kawasaki are the only two making factory 4 seat UTV's.

How old are your kids going to need to be before they are tall enough to reach the floor boards? What about all these "modified" utv's that added rear seats, way before the manufactures made true 4 seaters? This law is going to stop the average family who has a UTV and enjoys OHV recreation. Imagine being a little kid and your mom or dad saying we can no longer go to the desert because you cant ride in the buggy. How many of us would not be into recreational riding or racing if not for our parents taking us as small children? How many heard the story of Bob Gordon taking a 5 year old Robby Gordon, and strapping him to the fuel tank of the prerun buggy, and taking him prerunning. Without that we might not have or know the Robby Gordon of today.

So besides the helmet rule, their are so many more reasons to call the numbers I have posted above. It literately takes minutes to make a call.

[NIKAL]

Could sure use some RDC help on this. Paul Cook is attempting to amend two very important parts of this bill. We need to let him know we expect him to do this, and we need to call our local Rep's and the ones who's area's this is going to effect. Let them know you request they support Paul Cook and the Amendment to AB 1595.

To find other State Representatives http://192.234.213.69/amapsearch/

Paul Cook Assemblymen & author of the bill (Let them know if this is not fixed you will support Gregg Imus for Congress!)
909-790-4196 main office
916-319-2065 Capitol office

V Manuel Perez 80th district Assemblymen (Imperial Valley & Glamis)
760-336-8912 El Centro office (They need more calls!)
916-319-2080 Capitol office (They need more calls!)

Brian Jones 77th district Assemblymen (San Diego County including Anza Borrego & Cleveland National Forest) (Off-Roader himself)
619-441-2322 Santee office
916-319-2077 Capitol office

Juan Vargas District 40 Senator (Cleveland National forest, Anza Borrego & Glamis)
619-409-7690 Chula Vista Office
760-335-3442 El Centro office
916-651-4040 Capitol office

Tim Donnelly District 36 Assemblymen (Hemet, Lucerne valley) OHV Supporter
760-244-5277 Hesperia office
916-319-2059 Capitol Office

Joel Anderson District 36 Senator (El Cajon, Temecula, Cleveland National Forest) OHV Supporter
619-596-3136 El Cajon office

Congressmen Bob Filner 51st district (San Diego, El Centro, Superstition, Glamis, Salton Sea)
(619) 422-5963 San Diego office
(760) 355-8800 Imperial Valley office
(202) 225-8045 Capitol

Assemblymen Connie Conway (San Bernardino)
(559) 636-3440 Main office (Needs more calls)
(916) 319-2034 Capitol office

Senator Bill Emerson (District 37 Riverside County)
(760) 568-0408 Palm Desert office (Needs more calls)
(916) 651-4037 Capitol office (Needs more calls)

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Open 10:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m Eastern Time
800-514-0301 (Long automated message, Dial 7 for assistance)
Or (202) 307-0663

[NIKAL]

Third Update on the AB 1595 Fix per Paul Cook office;

NEW BILL # AB1266

I'm happy to report that the bill to begin fixing AB 1595 is now in print and available to be read online. The bill is AB 1266. I'm joined by Assemblyman Jim Nielsen and Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez in authoring this fix. You can view the text of AB 1266 at the following link:

http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill...d_sen_v98.html


This bill will do two things:

1)$ It eliminates the "feet flat on the floorboards" provision that would prevent children (and short adults) from riding as a passenger in a recreational off-highway vehicle.

2)$ It delays the implementation of the non-factory seating locations provision until July 1, 2013. While I would have liked to do a more permanent fix for this provision right now, that would require committee hearings before the Assembly and Senate Transportation Committees, which are no longer meeting at this point in the session. Both of the committees are aware of the issues with this section of the current law, however, and legislation for a more permanent fix will be moving forward in January. The delay in implementing this section will give plenty of time for the new legislation to be drafted and passed by the next legislature.

I expect AB 1266 to be voted on in the California Senate on Monday, August 27, although there is a possibility that it may be pushed back until Tuesday. I will take the bill up in the Assembly within 1-2 days of it passing the Senate. After the Assembly passes it, it will be sent to the Governor for signature. Because the Senate will be the first chamber voting on this bill, I would urge you all to contact your state senator urging them to support AB 1266. I'll continue to update you at every step of the process, and once again, I'd like to thank you all for contacting my office with your comments and concerns.

Sincerely,

Assemblyman Paul Cook

65th Assembly District

[NIKAL]

Well the UTV community has done something the racing communilty has not been able to do. They banned together and made some noise. A small part of AB1595 was amended tonight. AB1266 passed both the Senate and Assembly floors and is now going to the Govorners office to be signed. The amended bill took out the requirement having to be able to reach the floorboords in order to be able to ride in a UTV. This will insure your children will be able to continue to ride in them with you. The next part of the amendment was delaying the addition of rear seats to a factory two seat UTV. So all those with Rhino's or like UTV's will be able to use them as 4 seaters until July 1, 2013. This was a small vistory, but this allows the Legislator more time to adust this seaction of the law and specifying safety issues that would have to be met in order to keep those rear seats legal. The issues would be having the seats permantly bolted in, having proper seat belts and rear cage protection. These are item's 95% of the modified UTV' already have.

Also next year they are going to look into loosining up the helmet part of the law. It will not go away, but they will look into offering other options other then DOT helmets. Possible allowing BIke, Ski or other style helmets to be legal. They realized only after the law was writin and passed that a heavy DOT helmet can be more dangerous for young children then not having one at all.

I got to speak in length to Paul Cooks Legislative Director tonight. Tim was very open to hearing what the UTV/OHV community had to say and what they want fixed. I wish I could have spoke to him weeks ago. He said even though Legislation is closed until December he is going to be contacting the UTV community and writing two new amendments that can fix some of these issues. They will also be looking for a new Assemblymen to auther these new Bills. They have two Assemblymen who have large OHV areas in their districts and have shown great concern and seem to be intersted in taking over come December.

[kim]

Great work Nikal. Thank you for working so hard on this. I will be seeing Paul Cook on Tuesday. I will be sure to thank him as well.

[coilover88]

Nikal and his energy, along with others, have shown that we can make a difference. The only guarantee in the system is that if we don't participate we'll lose every time.

[kim]

Well the UTV community has done something the racing communilty has not been able to do. They banned together and made some noise. A small part of AB1595 was amended tonight. AB1266 passed both the Senate and Assembly floors and is now going to the Govorners office to be signed. The amended bill took out the requirement having to be able to reach the floorboords in order to be able to ride in a UTV. This will insure your children will be able to continue to ride in them with you. The next part of the amendment was delaying the addition of rear seats to a factory two seat UTV. So all those with Rhino's or like UTV's will be able to use them as 4 seaters until July 1, 2013. This was a small vistory, but this allows the Legislator more time to adust this seaction of the law and specifying safety issues that would have to be met in order to keep those rear seats legal. The issues would be having the seats permantly bolted in, having proper seat belts and rear cage protection. These are item's 95% of the modified UTV' already have.

Also next year they are going to look into loosining up the helmet part of the law. It will not go away, but they will look into offering other options other then DOT helmets. Possible allowing BIke, Ski or other style helmets to be legal. They realized only after the law was writin and passed that a heavy DOT helmet can be more dangerous for young children then not having one at all.

I got to speak in length to Paul Cooks Legislative Director tonight. Tim was very open to hearing what the UTV/OHV community had to say and what they want fixed. I wish I could have spoke to him weeks ago. He said even though Legislation is closed until December he is going to be contacting the UTV community and writing two new amendments that can fix some of these issues. They will also be looking for a new Assemblymen to auther these new Bills. They have two Assemblymen who have large OHV areas in their districts and have shown great concern and seem to be intersted in taking over come December.

Now that we are at a point where we can take a breath, for at least a minute I just want to say one thing. Had Terry McHale, the paid lobbyist for the OHV industry and its related groups such as ORBA, CORVA, D-37, ASA and related groups introduced this bill to the OHV community before it went to Paul Cook with absolutely NO opposition we may be in a different place. Paul saw the bill, saw that there was no opposition and introduced it. It's not his fault it was a flawed bill. He didn't know what he didn't know.

Is this a total slam on Terry? No, there is word on the street that Terry was told not to give the various intrest groups a heads up. Why? I'm not sure yet but you can bet I'm looking into it. To think that this could have caused the loss of hundreds or thousands of industry jobs around the country and what it would have done to our recreational opportunities is shameful. Some of you may know who I'm talking about. You all know me, I don't make baseless accusations. When I have more facts and the whole story you will all know what I know. I think you will be surprised.

Again, Nikal thank you for taking the lead and getting the job done.

Kim

[Forty1Racing]

Glad to see this was amended, good work NIKAL and all who participated.. It's not easy to keep up with all the stuff they throw at the OHV people.