STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1094

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 862

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 862, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAFFIC OFFENSES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create the criminal offense of excessive speeding.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, Holy Trinity School, Kuli'ou'ou/Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board #2, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawaii. Testimony in opposition was received from the Office of the Public Defender.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speeding is one of the most prevalent factors that contribute to traffic crashes. Speeding reduces a driver's ability to safely steer through curves and around objects on the roadway, extends the distance necessary to safely stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a dangerous situation.

In Hawaii, speeding was a factor in fifty-three fatal collisions during 2003, seventy-nine per cent of all fatal collisions for that year. During 2004, forty fatal collisions occurred in which speeding was a factor, which was sixty-one per cent of that year's traffic fatalities.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Lowering the speed limit parameters by substituting twenty-five for thirty miles per hour and substituting eighty for ninety miles per hour; and

(2) Making this measure effective upon its approval.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 862, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 862, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

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

____________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair