STAND. COM. REP. NO. 906

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1222

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1222, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE SEARCH AND RESCUE REIMBURSEMENT ACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize actions by the State and counties to recover the costs of search and rescue against a person whose failure to exercise reasonable care or failure to comply with the law or public safety warnings necessitated or complicated the search and rescue.

Your Committee finds that search and rescue operations can be very costly, depending on the circumstances, and often involve personnel and search craft. Too frequently, the rescue was necessitated by the victim's own failure to plan, to be properly equipped, and to use good judgment. This measure clarifies existing law to permit recovery in situations where the victim's own actions or inactions created the need for rescue or unnecessarily complicated it.

Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying that the type of devices used by a person exercising reasonable care includes signaling devices and communication devices generally, not just cellular telephones. Your Committee has also made technical nonsubstantive amendments for style and clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1222, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1222, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair