STAND. COM. REP. 15

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 52

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 52 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 drivers to:

(1) Place passengers under four years of age in a child passenger restraint system; and

(2) Place passengers who are four but under eight and under eighty pounds in a child safety or child booster seat.

This bill also exempts children under eight years of age and sixty pounds from these requirements if traveling in a motor vehicle equipped only with lap belts in a rear seat without shoulder straps.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Good Beginnings Alliance, Honolulu Police Department, Maui Police Department, Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. The Department of Health, Department of Transportation, and Hawaii Association of Independent Schools submitted comments.

Every year numerous children are injured in motor vehicle crashes, some fatally, due to being improperly restrained in a motor vehicle. Studies have shown that children under the age of eight are usually too small to be protected by seat belts made for adults. In fact, children restrained by seat belts designed for adults can die from internal injuries when involved in a collision. Booster seats and proper restraint systems, designed to adjust a child to fit a standard seat belt, is an easy way to solve this problem.

Although concerns were raised about the ability of vehicles to accommodate multiple booster seats and child restraint systems, your Committee feels that the safety of Hawaii's children should be of the utmost importance.

Your Committee understands that booster seats and child restraint systems that are secured to a vehicle by a lap type belt in the rear seat are only manufactured for children under forty pounds. Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Lowering the weight exemption for a child in a child safety seat or booster seat in vehicles equipped only with lap belts in the rear seat from sixty pounds to forty pounds; 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 H.B. No. 52, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 52, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

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

 

 

JOSEPH M. SOUKI, Chair