Vehicles: commercial vehicles: video event recorders.

Existing law prohibits any person, except as specified, from driving any motor vehicle with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied in or upon the vehicle that obstructs or reduces the driver's clear view through the windshield or side windows. Existing law exempts from this prohibition specified devices, including, among other things, a video event recorder, as defined, if the device conforms to certain mounting requirements, including that when a person is driving for hire as an employee in a vehicle with a video event recorder, the person's employer is required to provide unedited copies of the recordings upon the request of the employee or the employee's representative. Existing law requires the copies to be provided within 5 days of the request. A violation of the Vehicle Code is a crime. Existing federal regulations adopted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration prohibit, among other things, the mounting of devices on top of the windshield. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is authorized, pursuant to federal law, to provide exemptions from these regulations and to renew that exemption for a temporary 2-year period. This bill would exempt from the prohibition against placing an object that obstructs or reduces the driver's clear view, as specified above, a video event recorder, as described, mounted in a commercial motor vehicle that meets specified requirements. The bill would provide that this exemption would become inoperative on the date that the Department of the California Highway Patrol determines is the expiration date of the temporary exemption granted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from that federal regulation or the date of the expiration of any subsequent exemption, as specified. The bill would provide that, notwithstanding this nonoperation, on the date when the Department of the California Highway Patrol determines is the effective date of federal regulations that allow the placement of video event recorders at the top of the windshield on commercial motor vehicles, the exemption provided by the bill would remain operative, or, if the federal temporary exemption lapsed, would become operative.