Emergency vehicles: fee and toll exemptions.

Assembly Member Ávila Farías proposes expanding toll exemptions for emergency vehicles to explicitly include ambulances displaying exempt license plates, adding to existing provisions that cover police and fire department vehicles on California's toll roads, bridges, and high-occupancy toll lanes.

The exemption applies when ambulances are responding to or returning from urgent or emergency calls, engaged in emergency response, or performing emergency-related fire station coverage assignments. Vehicles must display both an exempt California license plate and external warning lights, and drivers must determine that using the toll facility would improve response times or service delivery. When toll operators bill public agencies for exempt usage, ambulance corporation executives may certify in writing that the vehicle qualifies for the exemption based on emergency response activities.

The legislation maintains current requirements for emergency vehicle toll exemption agreements between service providers and toll facility operators. It also preserves toll operators' ability to request dispatch records to verify proper exemption usage when compliance questions arise. The exemption does not automatically extend to emergency vehicles returning from urgent calls when traveling in high-occupancy toll lanes.