BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1662| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 1662 Author: Chau (D) Amended: 8/19/16 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 6-1, 6/21/16 AYES: Hancock, Glazer, Leno, Liu, Monning, Stone NOES: Anderson SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8 ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 67-2, 5/19/16 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Unmanned aircraft systems: accident reporting SOURCE: Author DIGEST: This bill requires the operator of any unmanned aircraft system (UAS) involved in an accident resulting in injury to an individual or damage to property to perform certain duties. Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/16 (1) require someone operating a drone during the course of their business, who has an accident, to also provide the business name and address; (2) create a wobblet, so a violation can be punishable by an infraction or a misdemeanor instead of only a misdemeanor; (3) remove the blanket exemption for law enforcement and unless complying would interfere with the officer's or employee's duties or would put individuals or property at risk of further damage; (4) require drone sport leagues to comply with the bill AB 1662 Page 2 if they cause injury, damage to property of a participant that wasn't intended to be damaged, or damage to property of someone not participating in the event; and (5) remove the exemption for people with a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization to operate the drone. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Requires, in federal regulations, all drone owners to register their drones with the FAA. Commercial drone operators, but not recreational drone operators, must also obtain FAA authorization, which is granted on a case-by-case basis. 2)Establishes a Division of Aeronautics within the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). (Public Utilities Code §§ 21001 et seq) 3)Requires, in federal law, under the Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, the Secretary of Transportation to develop a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system. The plan is required to provide for safe integration of civil UAS into national airspace as soon as practicable, not later than September 30, 2015. (112 P.L. 95, 332.) 4)Requires the driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting only in property damage to stop the vehicle immediately at the nearest location that will not impede traffic or jeopardize safety and do the following: locate and notify the owner of the property; provide his or her name and address; and present identification, if requested. If the property owner cannot be found, then the driver must leave a note on the damaged property with his or her name and address along with a statement of the circumstances of the accident, and notify the police. A violation of these requirements is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. (Vehicle Code § 20002) 5)Requires a person who parks and leaves a vehicle which then becomes a runaway vehicle involved in an accident causing property damage to follow the same provisions that apply to AB 1662 Page 3 other vehicle accidents causing property damage. (Vehicle Code § 20002(b)) This bill: 1)Requires the operator of the UAS involved in an accident resulting in injury to an individual or damage to property to immediately land the aircraft at the nearest location that will not jeopardize the safety of others. 2)Requires the operator to present his or her valid identification and his or her name and current residence address to the injured individual. 3)Requires the operator to locate and notify the owner or person in charge of the damaged property of the name and address of the operator and, upon being requested to do so, present his or her valid identification and his or her name and current residence address to the other property owner or person in charge of the damaged property. 4)Requires the operator to leave a written notice in a conspicuous place on the damaged property giving the name and address of the operator and a statement of the circumstances of the accident and notify the police department or the sheriff's department of the jurisdiction where the damage occurred. 5)Makes a violation of these requirements a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. 6)Exempts from these requirements law enforcement and a UAS operated under specific authorization from the FAA, in accordance with the terms and conditions of that authorization. 7)Defines "unmanned aircraft" and "unmanned aircraft system" consistent with federal law. Background This bill requires the operator of a UAS involved in an accident to land the vehicle and provide specified information to other AB 1662 Page 4 parties involved in the accident, consistent with the current requirements placed on a driver involved in a motor vehicle accident. The requirements and penalties associated with this bill mirror existing statutes relating to hit-and-run accidents, such as the requirement to leave a note with identifying information if the accident results only in property damage. UASs are widely available to the public, and retail systems outfitted with cameras now range from roughly $300 to $1,500. The FAA estimates that nearly one million UASs were sold during the December 2015 holiday season. In anticipation of the influx of UAS in the skies, the FAA issued new rules in 2015 requiring any UAS weighing between one-half pound and 55 pounds, including payloads such as on-board cameras, to be registered with the FAA by February 19, 2016. UAS owners must be at least 13 years old to register and must provide their name, home address, and email address. Upon registration under this requirement, UAS owners receive a Certificate of Aircraft Registration/Proof of Ownership along with a unique identification number, which must be marked or affixed to the unmanned aircraft. This unique identifier can then be used to look up the UAS owner in the event of an accident. These registration rules apply only to "model aircraft," i.e., recreational UASs not used for any commercial purpose. The FAA is currently in the process of adopting rules regulating the use of commercial UASs, which currently may only be authorized by the FAA on a case-by-case. According to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, the FAA now has more than 400,000 UAS registrants in the model aircraft category, which surpasses the 320,000 piloted airplanes currently registered with the FAA. While there is little existing law at the state level governing the use of UAS, it is unclear what effect upcoming FAA regulations will have on California's ability to regulate drones. Once the FAA has finished promulgating regulations, a future court may find that those regulations preempt certain state laws. The FAA recently issued a document on state and local regulation of UASs, and stated that laws traditionally related to state and local police power - including land use, zoning, privacy, trespass, and law enforcement operations - AB 1662 Page 5 generally are not subject to federal regulation. This bill appears to fall within the police power, because it establishes safety and accident reporting standards to help law enforcement resolve personal injury and property damage accidents involving drones. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: Yes SUPPORT: (Verified8/22/16) Association of California Water Agencies California Fire Chiefs Association California Police Chiefs Association DJI Fire Districts Association of California San Diego International Airport OPPOSITION: (Verified8/22/16) Electronic Frontier Foundation ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: DJI, a manufacturer of consumer and commercial unmanned aircraft, supports this bill stating: While injuries and property damage involving drones remain quite rare, AB 1662 ensures that the operator of any drone involved in such an incident can be held accountable. Accountability is an important ingredient to safe and responsible operation, and one that DJI fully supports. Moreover, we applaud the author's approach of modeling existing law regarding similar incidents involving ground-based vehicles, establishing consistent and predictable policy for operators and local law enforcement alike. AB 1662 Page 6 ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes this bill stating: To begin with, we agree that in most cases having a reporting requirement for accidents involving UAS (commonly known as drones) is in the public interest. However, there are scenarios where such a reporting requirement does not make sense. For example, many Californians participate in recreational drone combat competitions (sometimes referred to as "Game of Drones"). (See, e.g., http://aerialsports.tv/combat/) In these competitions, the goal is to damage the other person's drone so that it can no longer fly, while ensuring that your own drone stays in the air. These competitions typically take place in controlled indoor or outdoor environments, between individuals who are well aware of the risk of damage to their property (specifically their drones) and for whom doing quick repairs to fix damage is actually part of the fun of the competition. Therefore, we suggest that AB 1662 be amended so that damage done to property during recreational drone activities does not trigger its reporting requirement. To be clear, such a carve-out should only apply if the damage is done to property-not persons-and only when the damaged property belongs to someone affiliated with or taking part in the recreational activity (i.e. not the property of mere spectators or passersby). The second flaw in the bill is section 24455(c)(1), which excludes law enforcement officers and first responders from the bill's reporting requirements (i.e. section 24455(a)(1)-(3)). While we understand that in some situations, it may be necessary for this class of public servants to continue operating their drone without interruption, even after causing damage to people or property, we feel that a total exclusion is unwarranted and unnecessary. Therefore, we suggest that AB 1662 be amended so that the same reporting requirements apply to law enforcement and first responders as all others, except that they may delay complying with the reporting requirements if doing so AB 1662 Page 7 immediately would directly lead to additional damage to property or injury to people. In other words, a law enforcement officer could continue flying his drone if he were using it to track an armed suspect, and wait to find the injured party until after the suspect was apprehended. Such a carve out should not hinder law enforcement or first responders in any way, while still preserving their duty to find and exchange information with people injured by their UAS operations. Finally, the exception for people operating UAS pursuant to specific FAA authorizations should also be removed, as having an authorization from the FAA does not change the fact that the onus to report the accident and provide identifying information should be on the UAS operator, not the person who suffered injury or whose property was damaged. ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 67-2, 5/19/16 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Wood, Rendon NOES: Travis Allen, Harper NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Chang, Chávez, Beth Gaines, Hadley, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Melendez, Obernolte, Williams Prepared by:Mary Kennedy / PUB. S. / 8/22/16 22:40:38 **** END **** AB 1662 Page 8