Efforts in Massachusetts Spring Ahead
The Auto Glass Safety Council (AGSC) is working this year to support an effort in Massachusetts to enact an auto glass replacement safety law.
Identical bills introduced in the Massachusetts House and Senate would require a state agency to adopt regulations that “meet or exceed” the AGSC’s Automotive Glass Replacement Safety Standard (AGRSS Standard). The AGSC developed the AGRSS Standard in 1999 and it has been updated four times, most recently last year to further address recalibration issues concerning Advanced Drive Assistance Systems.
HD 181 was introduced by Representative Josh Cutler and SD 1686 by Senator Susan Moran. The bills direct the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles to promulgate the regulations based on the industry AGRSS Standard.
Peter Brown, president of Tiny and Sons in Pembroke, Mass., has been a leading advocate for safety laws among glass shops in the state. “The AGRSS Standard is the safety gold standard in auto glass safety and the state needs to step in to ensure that all glass shops follow the standards to ensure the safety of everyone in the state,” says Brown.
The bill sponsors are adding cosponsors and educating their colleagues on auto glass safety, and AGSC is reaching out to various stakeholders in the Commonwealth to solicit support for the legislative effort.
The Massachusetts legislature operates on a two-year session and the bills will be assigned to a committee in the spring, most likely the Joint Committee on Transportation. Rep. Cutler had also introduced the legislation in 2022, which was heard in that committee. The bill drew enough interest from legislators last year to spur Rep. Cutler to reintroduce it this year and work with Senator Moran, a member of that committee, to introduce an identical Senate bill.
States have become interested in adopting the voluntary industry AGRSS into state law. Maryland enacted similar legislation in 2021 and in March 2022 the Maryland Replacement Glass Safety Standard was adopted into state regulatory code. The Maryland standards mirrored the AGRSS standard and in late 2022, following the approval of the AGRSS Standard changes by the American National Standards Institute, the AGSC asked the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration to adopt changes to the state standard based on the AGRSS Standard changes.
Other Legislation
AGSC has also already testified this year on calibration consumer protection bills introduced in Maryland and New Hampshire. These bills are similar in language to the 2022 AGRSS Standard. Hearings were held in both states and the bills are pending. AGSC is also tracking a series of bills introduced in Florida that concern that state’s Assignment of Benefits rules. While legislation in that area has not moved in Florida in recent years, this year there are four different legislative proposals that touch upon that issue.
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