MARTINEZ - As the new member of the California State Assembly for District 11 – and former County Supervisor for Central Contra Costa County – Assembly Member Mark DeSaulnier has announced that his office will investigate whether statewide legislation is needed to improve the safety of communities that surround smaller, general aviation airports in urban and suburban settings, such as Buchanan Field in the Concord area.

The accident of Thursday, December 21, in which a small plane crashed near Highway-4 while attempting to land at Buchanan Field, killing four, rekindled thoughts of a similar accident over two years ago when a small jet made an emergency landing on Interstate-680.  In that incident, the aircraft crashed through a minivan and nearly severed the leg of a young girl.

“The 2004 accident on I-680 was terrible; and Thursday’s on Highway-4 was just devastating,” said Assembly Member Mark DeSaulnier. “As I’ve said before, when incidents such as this occur, it requires the public elected officials and government staff to redouble their efforts to prevent such accidents from happening again,” DeSaulnier suggested.  “We need to look at concrete, preventative measures to stop these incidents,” DeSaulnier added.

Assembly Member DeSaulnier plans to ask for a meeting with the aviation division of Caltrans to discuss aviation safety and what might be done to better protect California communities from such transportation accidents.