STAND. COM. REP. NO.1109

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 123

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 123, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SPEEDING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish fines for motorists who drive their motor vehicles at speeds greater than the maximum speed limit in school zones and construction areas.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Education, the Representative from the Forty-sixth District, and the Honolulu Police Department.

Your Committee finds that persons in construction areas and school zones are at a particularly high risk of being struck by passing motor vehicles. Construction work often requires that workers place themselves very near or even within lanes of traffic, where the slightest mishap or inattention on the part of a driver can have disastrous consequences.

This measure also establishes higher fines for speeding within school zones, where the presence of children requires that drivers operate their vehicles with special care. Children are more likely than adults to be unaware of the hazards of being struck by several tons of moving metal, and so the onus should be on drivers to pay extra attention when children are present.

Based on that belief, your Committee amended this measure to set the maximum speed limit in school zones at fifteen miles per hour. Your Committee recognizes that this may have an adverse impact on traffic, but your Committee finds that the State should be doing more to protect its children.

Your Committee also made several technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style and accuracy.

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 H.B. No. 123, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 123, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair