STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3335

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1509

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1509, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HIGHWAY SAFETY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend section 291C-137, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to mobile electronic devices to:

 

     (1)  Clarify no person shall operate a motor vehicle while using a mobile electronic device while held in the person's hand for the purpose of making or receiving a non-emergency call, texting, or receiving a text message, or to activate, deactivate, or initiate a function of the mobile device;

 

     (2)  Exempt from the offense drivers who are at a complete stop, whether or not the engine is running, in a safe location by the side of the road out of the way of traffic;

 

     (3)  Clarify the definitions of "operate" and "use" or "using";

 

     (4)  Specify that the penalty for a violation shall be a fine of $200, or $400 if in a school zone or construction area;

 

     (5)  Specify that if a person is under the age of eighteen years old at the time of a second offense, the fine shall be $300, and $400 for the third and subsequent offenses committed while under the age of eighteen years old;

 

     (6)  Require that collected fines be deposited in the state highway fund; and

 

     (7)  Specify that operating a motor vehicle in the State while using a mobile device is deemed a traffic infraction.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from eleven individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Transportation; Hawaii Bicycling League; Kauai Path, Inc.; and four individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Judiciary.

 

     Your Committee finds that after the passage of Act 74, Session Laws of Hawaii 2013, which enacted the mobile electronic devices law (codified as section 291C-137, Hawaii Revised Statutes), the Legislature received numerous complaints from the public about the vagueness and ambiguity of the law and the burden of violators having to make a court appearance.  Your Committee notes that it was never the intent of the Legislature that violators be forced to appear in court rather than mail in the fine without a court appearance, as allowed under chapter 291D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to adjudication of traffic violations.  This measure specifies a violation of the mobile electronic devices law is an infraction and establishes a system of increased fines for repeat violations by drivers younger than eighteen years of age.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying that the engine must be turned off in order for a driver to be exempt from the mobile electronic devices law when the vehicle is at a complete stop and in a safe location by the side of the road out of the way of traffic.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1509, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1509, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair