(a) Unless there is no practicable alternative, every driver of a vehicle transporting inhalation hazards shall avoid, by prearrangement of routes, driving into or through heavily populated areas, congested thoroughfares, or places where crowds are assembled. Operating convenience is not a basis for determining whether it is practicable to operate a vehicle in accordance with this subdivision.
(b) No vehicle transporting inhalation hazards shall be left unattended upon any street or highway.
(c) Inspection of the following items of equipment shall be made immediately preceding the actual transportation of an inhalation hazard:
(1) Brakes and the brake system.
(2) Steering, connection devices, and lighting systems.
(3) All tires.
(4) All supplemental equipment as required by Section 32106.
(d) En route inspection of tires and brakes on vehicles transporting inhalation hazards shall be performed at the following locations:
(1) At an inspection stop at least every four hours or 150 miles traveled, whichever occurs first, or as close thereto as is practicable, depending upon the proximity of those inspection stops.
(2) Regardless of elapsed time or miles traveled, at the top of and prior to descending any grade upon which the Department of Transportation has declared a speed limit for trucks of less than 55 miles per hour as provided by Section 22407. The inspection shall be made off the roadway.
(3) Regardless of elapsed time or miles traveled, at any location designated in regulations of the department as a required inspection stop.
(e) (1) Every person operating a vehicle transporting an inhalation hazard shall complete a record of every inspection which is required pursuant to this section in the form approved by the department showing the time and place of every inspection.
(2) The record of every inspection shall be made at the time the inspection is conducted.
(3) The person making the inspection shall certify the fact in the record.
(f) This section shall become operative on January 1, 1992.
(Added by Stats. 1988, Ch. 1384, Sec. 5. Section operative January 1, 1992, by its own provisions.)