REGION: Riverside County quietly adopts crash fee

Riverside County is poised to join a growing list of more than 60 California communities that bill some drivers for the cost of rolling fire engines and firefighters out to the scene of serious automobile crashes.

Quietly, without any discussion, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday to adopt a menu of charges that will go into calculating the fee, which opponents have dubbed a "crash tax."

Taxpayer groups and insurance companies say the measure is ill-conceived because it seeks to recover additional money for a service that was intended to be paid for by taxes.

The Riverside County fee amount will vary widely, depending on how many firefighters respond and how long they stay at an accident scene, said Peter Lent, county Fire Department deputy director in charge of emergency services.

The county will begin charging the fee July 1.

The Fire Department anticipates charges will average $250 to $300 per accident, he said, and range from $175 to $2,000.

Lent said the county will invoke the fee only when an investigating law enforcement agency determines that a driver has been negligent.

"Negligence is some sort of a criminal act that causes an accident," Lent said, saying examples include drunken driving, driving under the influence of drugs, reckless driving and leading police on a chase.

Later this month, the Fire Department intends to bring a similar measure to the board to establish a false-alarm fee. Under that proposal, Lent said, homeowners and business owners would pay about $225 if a false alarm results in a fire engine being called out.

"We are looking at zero tolerance," Lent said. "So the first time we come out on an equipment malfunction, you will be getting a bill."

He said the false alarm fee, if approved, will take effect 30 days after adoption, or around the first of August.

It would be similar to a fee the Murrieta Police Department assesses when burglar alarms go off erroneously.

Murrieta doesn't charge violators if they have three or fewer false alarms within a year, Murrieta police Capt. Dennis Vrooman said. But under city ordinance, a homeowner can be charged $100 for a fourth false alarm in a year, $150 for a fifth and $200 for a sixth.

Murrieta Fire Department spokesman Matt Corelli said the city does not charge for false fire alarms.

On the county level, both the crash fee and the proposed false-alarm fee are a result of Supervisor Jeff Stone's call early this year for the Fire Department to recover whatever costs it can. The idea came up during a discussion of how to close a multimillion-dollar hole in the department budget and keep fire stations open.

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