Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 2290, H.D. 1, entitled:

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.

This measure also specifies the requirements for obtaining a provisional license and driving with a provisional license, and provides for a waiting period before a suspended or revoked license is reinstated.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Transportation, Department of Health, Honolulu Police Department, American Academy of Pediatrics, Hawaii Insurers Council, Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Testimony in opposition was received from the Office of the Public Defender. 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 has learned that eighty-five per cent of the parents of young drivers in states having a graduated system rate the system as good.

Your Committee notes testimony 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 percent 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.

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 deleting its contents and inserting S.B. No. 2023, S.D. 1, a companion measure which makes the following changes:

Your Committee has also changed the effective date to January 1, 2005.

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. 2290, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2290, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.