STAND. COM. REP. NO. 369

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 1385
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Transportation and Intergovernmental
Affairs and Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B.
No. 1385 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO IMPAIRED DRIVERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require health care
providers to notify the county police of a person involved in
motor vehicle accident who is found to have a drug in his or her
blood during the normal course of medical evaluation and
treatment.  

     In order to make the notification, the health care provider
must have a reasonable belief that the person was the driver of
the motor vehicle involved in the collision.

     Testimony in support of this measure was received from the
Department of Transportation.  Mothers Against Drunk Driving
submitted testimony in support of the intent of this measure but
indicated that this measure may be premature.

     Your Committees find that although the law requiring health
care providers to report alcohol impaired drivers to county
police has only been in effect for two years, the law is
effective and should be expanded to include drug impaired
drivers.  Your Committees find that this measure aligns the law
relating to drug impaired drivers in parity with that of alcohol

 
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impaired drivers and will help in reducing the number of motor
vehicle accidents caused by drug impaired drivers.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by redefining
"drug" in section 291-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to mean any
chemical substance, natural or synthetic, that, when taken into
the human body, can impair the ability of the person's normal
mental faculties or ability to care for the person and guard
against casualty.  Your Committees have made technical,
nonsubstantive changes to this measure.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Transportation and Intergovernmental Affairs and
Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your
Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B.
No. 1385, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1385, S.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Transportation
                                   and Intergovernmental Affairs
                                   and Health and Human Services,



____________________________       ______________________________
SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair        CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair

 
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