STAND. COM. REP. NO.741-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2321

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 2321 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to require children from four to eight years of age, and under 80 pounds, to be restrained in a child safety seat or a booster seat while riding as a passenger in a motor vehicle.

The Department of Transportation, Department of Health, Maui Police Department, Honolulu Police Department, Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, Blueprint for Change, State Farm Insurance Companies, and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, testified in support of this measure. The Hawaii Association of Independent Schools supported the intent of this measure.

Your Committee finds that despite efforts by the automobile industry to protect infants and toddlers from injury while traveling in an automobile, preschoolers and young children between four and eight years of age still remain at high risk for injury. These children are often placed in standard adult-sized seat belts that are not designed for children and actually have the potential of causing serious injury or death.

 

 

Children who are at least four years of age but who are not yet eight years old, and who weigh less than eighty pounds should be secured in a child booster seat since these seats provide the security of an infant safety seat, but allow the child to ride comfortably while harnessed in the safety of a seat belt.

Your Committee understands the economic impact and hardship this may place on a family since compliant child safety seats cost between $20 and $30. Giving parents a $25 tax credit for the purchase of a child booster seat would alleviate the economic concerns raised while continuing to promote child passenger safety.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Providing a $25 tax credit for each child passenger restraint system or child booster seat purchased; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity, conformity, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2321, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2321, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation,

 

____________________________

JOSEPH M. SOUKI, Chair