STAND. COM. REP. NO.294

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1105

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1105 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHAPTER 291E,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purposes of this measure are:

(1) To establish "habitually operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant" as a separate felony offense;

(2) To delete statutory language requiring law enforcement officers to inform a person suspected of impaired driving of the possible criminal and civil sanctions for refusal to take a sobriety test;

(3) To permit the refusal to submit to a blood alcohol content (BAC) test to be used as evidence in the criminal trial for impaired driving;

(4) To permit the use of juvenile adjudications to be counted as "prior offenses" for enhanced sentencing in impaired driving offenses; and

(5) To include bicycles as vehicles covered by the impaired driving statutes.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, the Department of the Attorney General, the Police Department and the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving – Hawaii. The Office of the Public Defender submitted testimony in opposition to this measure. The Judiciary submitted comments.

Your Committee finds that the problem of drunk driving remains as serious as ever in the islands. Last year, over 2,100 drivers were stopped for suspicion of drunk driving. Your Committee finds that those who drink and drive must be treated like the criminals they are.

Therefore, your Committee supports this measure, which was drafted by the Honolulu Prosecutor's Office to strengthen our State's drunk driving laws. Your Committee supports each of the purposes of this measure, which will send a message that our State is intent on removing dangerous drivers, especially the habitual offenders, from the roads.

Your Committee amended this measure to reinstate a urine test as a permissible method of measuring a person's BAC. As received, the measure proposed to delete the utilization of urine tests as an acceptable means of determining a person's BAC under section 291E-11(a), Hawaii Revised Statutes. Your Committee also delayed the effective date until January 1, 2004, to give the Judiciary time to coordinate with all counties and law enforcement agencies regarding implementation of these amendments.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1105, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1105, S.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, Military Affairs and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair