(a)  For purposes of this chapter, “mass fatalities incident” means a situation in which any of the following conditions exist:

(1)  There are more dead bodies than can be handled using local resources.

(2)  Numerous persons are known to have died, but no bodies were recovered from the site of the incident.

(3)  Numerous persons are known to have died, but the recovery and identification of the bodies of those persons is impracticable or impossible.

(b)  The county coroner or medical examiner may make the determination that a condition described in subdivision (a) exists.

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 717, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2003.)