STAND. COM. REP. 2624

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2023

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2023, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DRIVER LICENSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create a three-tier system of driver licensing, including creation of a provisional license for persons under the age of eighteen.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Health, Department of Transportation, Honolulu Police Department (HPD), Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, American Academy of Pediatrics, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Hawaii Insurers Council, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and three individuals. Testimony in opposition was received from the Hawaii Motorcycle Dealers Association. Comments were received from the Judiciary.

The three-tier system created by this measure institutes progressive graduation from a learner's permit, to a provisional license, to a driver's license. A graduated system of driver licensing like this is the norm in the country. Hawaii is one of only six states without such a system.

Your Committee notes that statistics indicate that drivers under the age of nineteen continue to be involved in crashes that result in fatalities and injuries at twice the rate of the population as a whole. In Hawaii, forty-eight per cent of injury deaths among fifteen to nineteen year olds in the ten-year period between 1993 and 2002 were due to motor vehicle crashes. Your Committee finds that the high percentage of deaths among teen drivers in Hawaii is attributable to inexperience and inadequate driving skills. The intent of this measure is to reduce teen deaths due to negligent driving. The sad fact is that these tragedies can be easily avoided with a simple amendment to the laws.

Your Committee further finds that a graduated three-tier system would afford young drivers more time and experience behind the wheel under the supervision of a mature licensed driver. Your Committee sincerely believes that age, time, experience, maturity, and supervision are keys to driver safety for young people. Safe driving is a skill to be learned gradually over a period of time, like any other skill.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying the applicability of the provisional license to passenger vehicles and vehicles in the same statutory category;

(2) Clarifying the requirements when the provisional licensee is driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.;

(3) Requiring all occupants of the vehicle to be restrained by a seat belt assembly as provided by law;

(4) Providing that a provisional licensee cannot transport more than one unrelated person who is under the age of eighteen during the daytime and evening hours between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m.;

(5) Deleting reference to motor vehicle collision as a grounds for suspension or revocation, on the recommendation of the HPD and concurred with by MADD;

(6) Requiring the court to revoke the provisional license under specified circumstances rather than making it discretionary;

(7) Adding requirements for driving for a holder of a temporary instruction permit; and

(8) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2023, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2023, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair