California AB365 explained: The Justin Kropp Safety Act and what it means for electrical utilities

In October 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 365 into law, formally titled The Justin Kropp Safety Act. The bill creates one of the most specific AED placement requirements in the country, targeting a profession where sudden cardiac arrest and electrical injury risk are part of daily reality: electrical line work.

For utilities, contractors, and the safety professionals who oversee them, AB365 represents a meaningful shift in legal duty. Here is what the law actually says, who has to comply, and what a compliant AED program looks like in the field.

Who was Justin Kropp?

Justin Kropp was a Southern California Edison lineman who died on the job after suffering cardiac arrest at a worksite without an AED nearby. His family and colleagues pushed for the legislation that now carries his name. The argument in committee was straightforward: had a defibrillator been on site and reachable within minutes, Justin would almost certainly still be alive.

On average, 19.2 linemen per 100,000 are killed on the job each year nationwide, roughly twice the fatality rate of police officers and firefighters. Cardiac arrest from electrical contact, exertion in heat, and underlying conditions are all part of that number. The bill is named after one man but written to protect an entire workforce.

What AB365 actually requires

The new law applies to every utility, defined to include electrical corporations, electrical cooperatives, and local publicly owned electric utilities, as well as any independent contractor or subcontractor working on their behalf.

The core requirement is short and unambiguous:

An AED must be available at every worksite where two or more electrical utility workers are performing work on transmission or distribution lines of 601 volts or more.

Three details inside that single sentence drive the entire compliance picture:

• “Available” means reachable, not just somewhere in the truck. The AED has to be accessible in the response window where it can still make a difference, typically inside three to five minutes from collapse.
• The 601-volt threshold captures most distribution and transmission work, including the high-risk tasks where arc flash and cardiac complications are most likely.
• The two-worker trigger reflects basic logistics: one worker can place pads while the other calls 911 or continues rescue breaths.

Liability protections built in

AB365 extends California’s existing Good Samaritan provisions to AED use in this context. A person who, in good faith and without compensation, renders emergency care using an AED is shielded from civil liability. That removes one of the most common reasons crews hesitate to deploy a device, fear of being sued if the rescue fails, and aligns California with the standard already used in public-access defibrillation programs.

What “compliant” looks like in practice

The statute does not prescribe a specific AED model. It does set the expectation that the device functions and is ready when needed. For utility crews, that means three things:

1. The right AED for the environment

Line work happens outdoors, in heat, cold, dust, rain, and remote locations far from a hospital. The AED you choose should be:

• IP-rated for dust and water (IP55 or better is a sensible minimum for field use)
• Drop-resistant, with a documented impact rating
• Operable in extreme temperatures, since trucks bake in summer and freeze overnight
• Equipped with a clear visual and audio interface, since a panicked crew member may be administering it

Models like the HeartSine Samaritan 350P, the Defibtech Lifeline VIEW, and the Physio-Control LIFEPAK CR2 are routinely chosen for industrial and field environments because they meet these criteria.

2. A maintenance routine that survives real conditions

An AED with an expired battery or pads is not “available” in the legal sense. A compliant program needs:

• Documented monthly visual inspections (status indicator check)
• Tracked pad and battery expiration dates with replacement before they lapse
• A clear chain of custody when AEDs move between trucks or sites

3. Trained people to use it

The bill itself does not mandate certification for every worker, but the practical reality is that an AED only saves lives when someone reaches for it without hesitation. Most utilities will pair AB365 compliance with CPR and AED training so crews know what to do when they hear the device say “shock advised.”

Implementation timeline

The bill was signed into law on October 6, 2025. California statutes without an urgency clause typically take effect on January 1 of the year following enactment. Utilities should treat early 2026 as the practical deadline to have devices deployed, inventoried, and crews briefed.

Waiting to act risks two problems: a compliance gap on January 1, and a procurement bottleneck if every California utility orders AEDs in the same quarter.

What this means for independent contractors

One of the most overlooked aspects of AB365 is that it covers contractors and subcontractors performing work on behalf of a utility. That includes vegetation management crews, line construction firms, and emergency response contractors. If your trucks are on a utility’s lines, the AED requirement follows the work, not the employer.

For contracting companies, the operational answer is to standardize: equip every crew vehicle that runs 601V+ work with an AED, regardless of which utility holds the contract that day.

Building your AB365 AED program

A practical rollout looks like this:

1. Inventory your worksites. Identify every location and crew configuration where AB365’s two-worker, 601V+ trigger applies.
2. Pick a device that fits field conditions, not the cheapest box. The unit cost difference between consumer-grade and field-grade AEDs is small compared to the cost of one preventable death.
3. Mount or stage the AED for reach. Inside the truck, on a quick-grab clip, not buried under tools.
4. Build the maintenance log into your existing safety routine. Tie pad and battery checks to your vehicle inspection cadence.
5. Train, then retrain. Annual CPR/AED refreshers keep response times short when it matters.

Help with the heavy lifting

If you are responsible for AB365 compliance and not sure where to start, our team can walk you through device selection, packaging that includes pads and a hard case rated for field use, and a maintenance schedule tied to your fleet. We supply AEDs to utilities, contractors, and public agencies across California, and we have spent the last decade matching the right device to the right environment.

Justin Kropp’s name is on this law because his family did not want another family to lose a lineman the same way. The most useful thing any utility leader can do with AB365 is treat compliance not as paperwork, but as the operational change that finally makes the next cardiac arrest survivable.