WASHINGTON (April 8, 2009)—Hawaii, California and New York are the latest states to have bills regulating the age of tires sold within their borders before their legislatures.
Furthest along is Hawaii's S.B. 1064, a bill that would make it illegal to sell a tire more than six years after its date of manufacture and set a fine of up to $100 for each such sale.
The Hawaii Senate's Transportation, International and Intergovernmental Affairs reported the bill favorably Feb. 20 and referred it for further action to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.
AB 496, a bill before the California Assembly, is set for a committee hearing and vote April 14.
The bill would require all tire dealers to provide written information on sale documents about the age of each tire sold to customers, in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Korean.
Customers would have to initial the information to signify they had read and understood it, and dealers would have to keep the documents for at least three years after the sale. Each violation would be punishable by a fine of $250.
The New York Assembly has a tire aging bill, A05298, before its Committee on Transportation.
The bill would forbid the sale of any tire within the state that did not have the date of manufacture clearly molded on both sides “in a non-coded fashion.”
New York's attorney general would have the power to issue injunctions against the sale of noncompliant tires and assess fines of up to $500 for each violation.
Late last year, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs issued a notice of pre-proposal, soliciting comments on the feasibility of requiring the state's tire dealers to disclose the age of the tires they sell.