Report Title:

Alcohol; Drugs; Highway Safety; Medical Personnel Immunity

 

Description:

Provides health care providers with immunity if blood or urine tests performed on a person involved in a motor vehicle collision indicates ability may have been impaired by drugs or alcohol, and the health care provider gives notice to law enforcement officer.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1189

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to alcohol, drugs, and highway safety.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 286-163, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) If a health care provider who is providing medical care in a health care facility to any person involved in a motor vehicle [accident] collision, becomes aware, as a result of any blood or urine test or tests performed in the course of medical treatment, that the alcohol content in the person's blood meets or exceeds the amount specified in section 291-4, or the person's blood or urine contains one or more drugs that are capable of impairing a person's ability to operate a vehicle in a careful and prudent manner as specified in section 291-7, and has a reasonable belief that the person was the driver of a motor vehicle involved in the [accident] collision, the health care provider shall notify, as soon as reasonably possible, any law enforcement officer present at the health care facility to investigate the [accident] collision or, if no such officer is present, the county police department in the county where the [accident] collision occurred. Where the health care provider is aware of any blood or urine test result as provided in the preceding sentence, but lacks information to form a reasonable belief as to the identity of the driver involved in a motor vehicle [accident] collision, then the health care provider shall give notice as provided in the preceding sentence for all persons involved in a motor vehicle [accident] collision whose alcohol content in the person's blood meets or exceeds the amount specified in section 291-4 or whose blood or urine contains one or more drugs. The notice by the health care provider shall consist of the name of the person being treated, the blood alcohol level disclosed by the test or the drug content, and the date and time of the administration of the test. Such notice shall be deemed to satisfy the intoxication or drug element necessary to establish the probable cause requirement set forth in subsection (c)."

SECTION 2. Section 663-1.9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsections (a) and (b) to read as follows:

"(a) Any health care provider who, in good faith in compliance with section 286-163, provides notice concerning the alcohol [content] concentration of a person's blood or drug content of a person's blood or urine shall be immune from any civil liability in any action based upon the compliance. The health care provider shall also be immune from any civil liability for participating in any subsequent judicial proceeding relating to the person's compliance.

(b) Any authorized person who properly withdraws blood or collects urine from another person at the written request of a police officer for testing of the blood's [alcoholic content,] alcohol concentration or drug content or the drug content of the urine, and any hospital, laboratory, or clinic, employing or utilizing the services of such person, and owning or leasing the premises on which such tests are performed, shall not be liable for civil damages resulting from the authorized person's acts or omissions in withdrawing the blood[,] or collecting urine, except for such damages as may result from the authorized person's gross negligence or wanton acts or omissions."

SECTION 3. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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