CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. 14

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1214

H.D. 2

S.D. 2

C.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the House of Representatives to the amendments proposed by the Senate in H.B. No. 1214, H.D. 2, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC LAND LIABILITY,"

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

The purpose of this bill is to establish a risk management procedure for improved public lands, involving the design and placement of signs that warn of dangerous natural conditions, and that affords the State and counties protection from liability for injuries resulting from those dangerous conditions.

Your Committee on Conference finds that many dangerous conditions on unimproved and improved public lands pose a risk of injury to recreational users. Current law discourages the State and counties from warning of risks, because to do so may impose additional responsibility and liability on the State and the counties. Without a fair and balanced solution to this problem, many public recreational areas would have to be closed. This bill establishes a clear-cut procedure that allows recreational users to be protected and warned, ensures that the warning is reasonable, adequate, and useful, and provides that the warning shields the State and county from liability for the danger warned of.

Your Committee on Conference understands that the Department of Land and Natural Resources will work with user groups to seek their assistance and establish a process to report missing, vandalized, or illegible signs. Further, it is the intent of your Committee that the Risk Assessment Working Group (Working Group) established by this bill seek and consider input from recreational and other users of public lands in providing consultation to the Board of Land and Natural Resources on warning signs and systems.

Your Committee on Conference have amended this bill by:

(1) Requiring the State and counties to maintain a documented sign inspection program, and making continuance of the conclusive presumption that a sign provides legally adequate warning of a dangerous condition dependent on documented inspections of the sign to ensure that it is in place and legible, that occur within a period of 120 days;

(2) Providing that the conclusive presumption applies regardless of whether a sign was vandalized, so long as the warning is legible;

(3) Allowing a presumption that has lapsed because of the lack of a documented inspection, to be reestablished if it can be proven that at the time of the incident the sign was in place and in legible condition;

(4) Mandating that the State and counties implement an accident reporting and record keeping program documenting all known park and trail accidents, and providing that the Working Group review and utilize these records when it provides consultation to the Board of Land and Natural Resources on the approval of warning signs and systems;

(5) Requiring the Working Group to submit a report of its activities and recommendations to the Legislature at least 20 days before each Regular Session;

(6) Providing for the repeal of this Act on June 30, 2008; and

(7) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1214, H.D. 2, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1214, H.D. 2, S.D. 2, C.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

____________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Co-Chair		____________________________ EZRA KANOHO, Co-Chair
____________________________ COLLEEN HANABUSA, Co-Chair		____________________________ BLAKE K. OSHIRO, Co-Chair