Interestingly, the part of the law you are referring to is worded exactly as follows (just a portion of full section):
"As used in this section, “video event recorder” means a video recorder that continuously records in a digital loop, recording audio, video, and G-force levels, but saves video only when triggered by an unusual motion or crash or when operated by the driver to monitor driver performance." (underline by me)
Bearing in mind that that the Dashcam must conform to this law merely to be legal when attached to the windshield in the allowed areas and be exempted from being considered an "obstruction", the law itself states that the camera must "record" in a digital loop. I only know of one definition of "record" when referring to a vide camera, and it is rather synonymous with "save". This makes the subsequent statements about "saving" video somewhat muddled. One might infer that the writers of the law were referring to the write-protection feature of "locked" files.
Additionally I take the above underlined (red) statement to mean I as the "driver" am fully within my rights under this law to (using a compliant and windshield mounted cam) "save" the said recorded video at any time I wish either by manually locking my files or downloading permanent copies off of the SD card before they get overwritten.
The 30 sec reference says:
"Video event recorders [to be legal when mounted on the windshield in a designated area] shall store no more than 30 seconds before and after a triggering event" (bracketed words inserted by me for some big-picture context)
I personally don't see how this statement can be made to harmonize with the earlier portion with the automated functions we have on current cameras. However, if recording in 1 min segments (which I do) and the earlier statement allows one to "save" at will, then who is to say what the triggering event is? What stops me from just always saying it's in the middle of the saved 1 min file?
I think this is simply an example of a law written by people who clearly don't understand the technology.
And remember this is all just so the camera is legal if ATTACHED TO THE WINDSHIELD. It's a subsection of the law about obstructing/attaching things to the windshield.