Reiner Urges Crackdown on Tampering With Car Smog Devices
Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner is campaigning for a statewide crackdown on tampering with automotive pollution controls that would include roadside smog checks, use of a sensing device to determine who gets pulled over, and stiff fines for offenders.
The proposal will be on the agenda when legislative hearings on the smog check program are held this fall.
Reiner says his proposal is meant to augment, not replace, the periodic smog checks required for motor vehicle registration.
Smog control instruments are most often deliberately adjusted or disabled by drivers who believe the equipment affects their cars’ performance. The problem is significant; the Bureau of Automotive Repair estimates that 25% of vehicles on the road show evidence of tampering.
Reiner’s proposed program has revived debate over the reliability of the sensing device. But state authorities are eager to head off the prospect that the federal government will require annual, rather than biennial, smog check inspections and centralized testing stations, rather than a trip to the nearest qualified mechanic. The new Clean Air Act specifies both, as well as higher cost limits for repairs.
Some see Reiner’s idea as a way to prove that there are other methods for reducing pollution from motor vehicles.
“I’m sure EPA could be approached with that,” said Marc Pitchford, an air quality expert with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He cautioned, however, that such a request would be controversial within the agency.
Even if the EPA does mandate the more frequent checks or centralized testing, or both, “We’re not necessarily talking about abandoning this,” said Carla Anderson, an aide to state Sen. Robert B. Presley (D-Riverside), who is organizing the hearings. “It’s an interesting proposal and we can keep working on it.”
Currently, smog checks include a visual under-the-hood inspection for evidence of tampering. The owner of a car with deliberately modified smog controls must fix them, no matter how much the cost.
Reiner wants to use an infrared pollution detector invented by a University of Denver chemist to discover which cars on the road are the worst polluters. The detector focuses a beam, which looks like a laser, from one side of a street. Across the road, a sensor measures how much of the beam was absorbed. The more absorbed, the more carbon monoxide is being emitted.
Reiner suggests buying 100 of the detectors, deploying them throughout the state and moving them around on a regular schedule.
California Highway Patrol officers would pull over the cars and Air Resources Board staffers would inspect under the hood and administer a more detailed smog check with the standard testing machines.
Where there is a deliberate effort to disconnect or remove the emission control system, Reiner suggests a $500 fine for a first offense. For subsequent violations, Reiner recommends suspension of a driver’s license, forfeiture of the vehicle or jail time. Evidence of tampering without proof of deliberate efforts would warrant a $100 fine under his plan.
Reiner believes that more than 1.1-million pullover inspections could be conducted each year, at a rate of six per hour. Citations, he estimates, would bring in more than $50 million a year.
That money would finance the testing program and also contribute to a fund to help pay for repairs on vehicles that simply flunk the smog check, without evidence of tampering.
“That in itself would be of great benefit,” Pitchford said.
Technical concerns remain. ARB spokesman Bill Sessa said the pollution detector is useful as a research tool, but needs further testing before it can be relied upon for law enforcement.
Others, such as Caltech air quality expert John Seinfeld, disagree. “I’m pretty comfortable with using the device as probable cause to stop someone and check further,” he said.
