Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation and Government Operations and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2736 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow counties to take into custody and dispose of abandoned vehicles on private roads if the owner of the private road is unknown or cannot be located, and to immunize the county from liability for doing so.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Windward Ahupua`a Alliance and one individual.

Your Committees find that abandoned vehicles on Hawaii's roads is a problem that few can ignore. These vehicles impair the beauty of our physical environment, decrease visibility for drivers, create hazards for walkers and bicyclists, leak hazardous materials, and often serve as breeding grounds for pests. The situation is particularly aggravating when vehicles are abandoned on private roads whose owners are unknown or cannot be located, since current law allows abandoned vehicle removal by the counties only from public roads and public property.

This measure, as amended, is intended to facilitate the disposal of abandoned vehicles on private roads while providing immunity to the counties for from trespass. Your Committees have amended this measure accordingly and made technical changes for proper statutory formatting.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Government Operations and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2736, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2736, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.