Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 2639 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to enhance traffic safety by increasing sanctions for persons operating a motor vehicle with a high blood alcohol level.

The Department of Transportation, Department of Health, Honolulu Police Department, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving-Hawaii testified in support of this bill. The Office of the Public Defender opposed this measure.

Hawaii has seen an increase in the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents and fatalities. More alarming is the number of impaired drivers operating a motor vehicle with a high blood alcohol content. In fact, over the last five years, approximately 48 percent of intoxicated drivers involved in alcohol-related crashes in Hawaii had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .15 or higher with the average BAC of a driver arrested for driving under the influence of an intoxicant estimated to be .14. These highly intoxicated and impaired drivers are a danger not only to themselves but also to other motorists and pedestrians.

However, your Committee notes that this measure proposes a license and vehicle registration revocation period of at least one year which is the same penalty given to those refusing to take a BAC test. Accordingly, your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Changing the license and vehicle registration revocation

period for highly intoxicated drivers to six months; and

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2639, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2639, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.