Report Title:

Speeding; Construction Area

 

Description:

Increases the fine for speeding in a construction area to double the amount prescribed by law for the same offense outside of a construction area or $250, whichever is greater.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2268

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

relating to statewide traffic code.

 

 

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

 


     SECTION 1.  In 2005, speeding-related fatalities accounted for nearly half of all the traffic fatalities in Hawaii.  In November 2006, Honolulu police initiated a sweeping crackdown on dangerous drivers in a campaign to reduce the number of speeding-related accidents and fatalities.  During the first three weeks of the crackdown, Honolulu police issued 2,696 speeding citations and four hundred sixty-three warnings to motorists.  Typically, the Honolulu police issue an average of three thousand speeding citations each month.

     The legislature finds that speeding is especially dangerous in construction areas, where workers are performing challenging tasks on or adjacent to the road.  Speed was believed to be a factor in the recent death of one construction worker and the critical injury of another who were struck by a van on Fort Weaver Road in Ewa Beach in August 2007.

     The purpose of this Act is to reduce the exposure of public and private construction and maintenance workers to traffic related injuries and encourage motorists to adhere to the speed limits posted in construction areas.

     SECTION 2.  Section 291C-104, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§291C-104  Speeding in a school zone or construction area.  (a)  No person shall drive a motor vehicle at a speed greater than the maximum speed limit established pursuant to subsection [(b)] (d) within a school zone [or a construction area;].  Any person who violates this subsection shall be fined $250; provided that if the person drives a motor vehicle in a school zone at a speed greater than thirty miles an hour or more over the maximum speed limit established in subsection [(b),] (d), or over eighty miles per hour or more [in a school zone or a construction zone], the provisions of section 291C‑105 shall control.  [Appropriate law]

     (b)  No person shall drive a motor vehicle within a construction area at a speed greater than the maximum speed limit established pursuant to subsection (d).  Any person who violates this subsection shall be assessed a fine equal to double the amount prescribed by law for the same offense outside of a construction zone or $250, whichever is greater.

     (c)  Law enforcement personnel [may] shall enforce the maximum speed limits established for school zones and construction areas.

     [(b)(d)  Section 291C-102 notwithstanding, the director of transportation and the counties, in their respective jurisdictions, shall [establish]:

     (1)  Establish maximum speed limits for school zones and construction areas; and [shall require]

     (2)  Require the owner, general contractor, or other person responsible for construction to provide [proper] and post official signs in construction areas.

     (e)  The director of transportation shall [place] post official signs in school zones.

     (f)  Signs posted pursuant to this [subsection] section shall be plainly visible at all times under ordinary traffic conditions.  Construction area speed limits shall be posted on the department of transportation's standard size speed limit signs at least one hundred feet in advance of the entrance to a construction area.  Construction area signs shall warn of the doubled fines for speeding within a construction area.

     [(c)  Any person who violates this section shall be fined $250.

     (d)] (g)  For purposes of this section:

     "Construction area" includes any area in which there is occurring the installation, construction, or demolition of connections for streets, roads, driveways, concrete curbs and sidewalks, structures, drainage systems, landscaping, or grading within the highway rights-of-way, including aboveground and underground utility work, excavation and backfilling of trenches or other openings in state highways, the restoration, replacement, or repair of the base course, pavement surfaces, highway structures, or any other highway improvements.

     "School zone" means every street and all public property in the vicinity of a school as designated by the department of transportation and the counties, in their respective jurisdictions.

     [(e)] (h)  The director shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 as may be necessary to implement this section."

     SECTION 3.  This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

     SECTION 4.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.


     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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