Report Title:

Dwelling Units; Window and Balcony Safety

 

Description:

Requires counties to adopt ordinances requiring the installation of window guards and locks located at the top of lanai doors in all dwelling units in which a child or children 10 years of age and under reside.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

104

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to injury prevention.

 

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

SECTION 1. According to the department of health's injury prevention and control program, injuries lead to more deaths of children and young adults from ages one to thirty-nine than all other causes combined, including heart disease, stroke, and cancer. In fact, injuries cause more than half of all deaths among children and youth.

One type of injury that often leads to or results in death is injuries to children who fall from high-rise apartment buildings. Since 1991, eight children age four or younger have died after falling from a high-rise in Hawaii. The legislature believes that the requirement of window guards and higher lanai door locks for all residential high-rise apartment buildings will help protect the lives of young children from accidental death and injury from window, lanai, and balcony falls.

The purpose of this Act is to require each county to enact an ordinance requiring the installation of window guards and higher lanai door locks for all residential high-rise apartment buildings in the State.

SECTION 2. Chapter 46, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§46- Window guards, lanai locks. Not later than December 31, 2005, each county shall adopt an ordinance requiring the owner of a dwelling unit that is part of a multiple dwelling unit building containing more than one floor to install and maintain, window guards and lanai door locks, if applicable, of a type approved by the county. Each county shall require window guard and lanai door lock installations to be made pursuant to specifications provided by the county as follows:

(1) On the windows of each dwelling unit in which a child or children ten years of age or under reside;

(2) On the windows, if any, in the public halls, except that this section shall not apply to windows providing access to fire escapes; and

(3) On lanai doors of each dwelling unit in which a child or children ten years of age or under reside; provided that lanai door locks shall be installed no lower than twenty-four inches from the top of a lanai door and shall be child proof, as determined by the department of health.

Each county's ordinance shall require the installation window locks and lanai door locks by January 1, 2007, and shall include penalties to address violations of and noncompliance with the ordinance."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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