LA City Hall rally decries new bill allowing alcohol sales till 4 a.m.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- People protested outside of City Hall Tuesday against a bill the California Senate approved that would allow bars to operate and sell alcohol until 4 a.m.

Public health and safety advocates believe the proposed SB-384 bill, also known as the LOCAL act, will lead to more car crashes, chaos in emergency rooms and alcohol related assaults and injuries. Demonstrators also denounced the bill because of the lack of public transportation options available at 4 a.m.

"This bill is a disaster for our communities, it will dramatically impact the health and the safety in our communities," said Albert Melena of the San Fernando Valley Partnership.

The LOCAL act will allow, but not require, communities to extend alcohol sales hours.

San Francisco Sen. Scott Weiner, who authorized the bill, released the following statement about it:

"Despite the claims of some critics, there isn't any correlation between later service hours and higher DUI rates. In fact, if you look at the data, many states with the highest rates of DUI-related fatalities have service hours of 2 a.m. or earlier, and most of the states with the lowest DUI-related fatality rates allow for alcohol service later than 2:00 a.m."

SB-384 will now seek the approval of the heads of the California Assembly.