More than one-third of the state Assembly disagrees with a proposal to require car dealers to resolve any open safety recalls before reselling a vehicle to the general public.

The proposal, A.5194, was passed Monday by the state Assembly by a 92-39 vote, with Assemblyman Joe Giglio, R-Gowanda, voting against the proposal. Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, was marked ER for the vote, though he voted against the legislation last year. Companion legislation, S.6059, has been referred to the Consumer Protection Committee.

Assemblyman Michael DenDekker, D-Jackson Heights, said when a motor vehicle recall is initiated by a manufacturer, the manufacturer is required to contact the registered owners of those vehicles and notify them that a safety recall is in place. It is also required to notify the owners that it will repair that vehicle at no cost to the vehicle owner. His proposal seeks to deal with vehicles that have been traded in before the recall notice is issued and when the manufacturer has no way of notifying the person or entity that has possession of the vehicle of the safety recall.

Assemblyman Ed Ra, R-Franklin Square, asked for clarification on the types of car dealers that are required to take part. DenDekker said any dealer that sells more than three vehicles a year would have to make a good faith effort to determine if there is a safety recall before selling the used car.

“What it says is that they have to make a good faith effort to determine whether there has been a manufacturer or National Highway Safety Administration recall, so what do you mean, or what do you envision, by a good faith effort?” Ra asked. “Is it sufficient to just check the website of the NHSA?”

DenDekker said that would suffice. Once a recall has been discovered, the law would require the dealer to take the vehicle to the manufacturer that issued the recall so that the vehicle can have the recall addressed. Once safety recalls are addressed the vehicle can then be sold.

“The main purpose of this is that we don’t want unsafe vehicles being driven off of brand new or used car lots,” DenDekker said. “Most members of the public are under the assumption that when they purchase a car from a new car dealer or a used car dealer that the car is going to be safe and it has no open recalls. We just don’t want any accidents to happen that shouldn’t happen.”

The legislation has been debated in the Assembly several times over the past decade and was passed by the Assembly in the 2013-14 legislative session.

Ra said there should be general agreement on DenDekker’s desire to have safer vehicles on the roads, but said the proposal could also have unintended consequences for those trying to trade in their vehicles. Ra suggested some sort of informed consent provision between the dealer and the person who wants to purchase a vehicle with an open safety recall.

“The concern that I have is there may be less of a likelihood that a dealer takes a car as a trade in from another manufacturer because they may be fearful they will learn of a recall,” Ra said. “Some recalls, we know, can be fixed quickly but all of us have heard of situations where there’s a recall, especially when there’s a major international recall of something and it takes some time and sometimes the problem is identified before the fix is identified.”