All that dust in the air is from me, blowing it away from this blog as I renew my efforts to ENERGIZE you to help protect our ambulances, MICUs, fire apparatus and police cars from shoddy manufacturing!
The proposed Emergency Vehicle Lemon Law (A3396 and S2304) is alive and pretty well, but there’s a threat on the horizon.
To bring you up to date:
The Assembly Bill has been approved by the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee with a recommendation that it be passed. There were no changes to the bill and nobody asked me to come and explain. My thanks to Assemblyman Gary Chiusano and Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose for introducing that legislation and shepherding it through the committee. Further thanks to the members of that committee for unanimously approving the bill.
In the Senate Commerce Committee, however, we’ve run into a glitch. General Motors has objected to the bill as written. Sen. Nia Gill asked Sen. Steven Oroho, who introduced the legislation along with Sen. Barbara Buono, to set up a meeting between GM and me and negotiate compromise language.
We had that meeting three weeks ago. General Motors actually sent someone from Detroit, as well as a professional lobbyist from one of the area’s most powerful lobbying firms. In addition, Honda sent a representative as did two associations that represent vehicle manufacturers. These were all lobbyists and attorneys. I had no representation, although Wayne Blanchard of Saint Clare’s turned his schedule upside down so he could come with me and show his support.
The meeting went well. The manufacturers’ objection is that they don’t want to be responsible if it’s part of the conversion that’s a problem. In other words, if there’s a persistent electrical short in the ambulance module mounted on a GM chassis, GM doesn’t want to be forced to shoulder the entire burden. That’s reasonable, I guess.
The lobbyist representing GM promised to propose new language within a week. We still haven’t heard from him.
To me, one issue is that GM doesn’t monitor who’s using its chassis for what. I’m guessing neither does Ford or any other manufacturer. So the debate comes when Ace Rescue Vehicles (stick whatever name you want in there) buys a GMC Savannah cutaway with a gross vehicle weight rating of 9,500 pounds and proceeds to mount a module on it that brings the GVW to 9,600 pounds. Then you load it with equipment and the truck is at 11,000 pounds and you’re having constant transmission problems. Who’s fault is that?
I’m happy to discuss language with GM and their cohorts. But, as I told them, at the end of the day we need a law in place that gives us recourse against a manufacturer of a vehicle that doesn’t work and that endangers the lives of responders and community members by being unable to respond. Right now, if that the manufacturer and its dealers cannot or will not fix that vehicle, the only thing an agency can do is sue them. That’s not acceptable.
With GM and a whiff of controversy in the picture, we all now need to get involved. Although they have powerful lobbyists that will work to dilute the proposed law until it’s next to useless, we’re a pretty powerful group ourselves. Here’s what you can do:
First, do you live in one of these towns?
Allendale, Allentown, Alpine, Bordentown, Bordentown City, Chesterfield, Clark, Clifton, Closter, Creskill, Demarest, Dumont, East Orange, Elizabeth, Emerson, Fanwood, Farmingdale, Fieldsboro, Glen Ridge, Green Brook, Harrington Park, Haworth, Hillsdale, Hohokus, Howell, Jackson, Kenilworth, Lakewood, Linden, Middlesex, Montclair, Montvale, New Hanover, New Milford, North Plainfield, Northvale, Norwood, Old Tappan, Oradell, Park Ridge, Plainfield, Plumsted, Rahway, Ramsey, Robbinsville, Roosevelt, River Edge, Rivervale, Rockleigh, Roselle, Saddle River, Scotch Plains, Union Township, Upper Freehold, Upper Saddle River, Waldwick, Washington (Bergen), Westwood, Winfield, Woodcliff Lake and Woodland Park (West Paterson)
If so, your state senator is on the Senate Commerce Committee. You need to write him or her and let him or her know that this bill is important to you, that you are an emergency provider and that you vote (you are registered to vote, aren’t you? There’s a rather significant election coming up in a few weeks…) and that you want him or her to vote for this bill. It’s as simple as a quick email or a quick phone call.
If you’re not in one of those towns, please keep an eye on things here. At the appropriate time, we’ll need you to let your assembly representative and state senator know that you want them to vote for these bills. You can tell them now, but you also should tell them later.
There are directions elsewhere on this blog on how to find out who your asssemblyperson and senator are and how to write them. If you’re not sure, just reply to this with your email and where you live and I’ll look it up for you.
Also, please send me your stories about problems with emergency vehicles and let me know how I can reach out to you. We need to assure the members of the General Assembly that this is a real problem.
Finally, if you’d like to help me with this battle, please let me know.
I know this isn’t as exciting as a working fire or a complicated vehicle extrication, but if we can’t get the apparatus there, we can’t work. Not to be melodramatic, but people can die…and some of those people might be members of service.
Please: Your safety and that of the people you serve and protect are at stake here, not to mention our precious financial resources. Please give this effort your support.
N.J. Emergency Lemons 