Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 427 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the use of child safety seats or booster seats for children over four years old but less than eight years old, and under certain weight and height minimums.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, Department of Health, Honolulu Police Department (HPD), Maui Police Department, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Keiki Injury Prevention Center, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and two individuals.

Current law does not require a child under four years of age to be restrained in a child passenger restraint system. This measure raises the age to under eight years of age and adds a booster seat as an alternative. This measure also provides an exemption for children over four feet and nine inches in height, or traveling in a motor vehicle equipped only with lap belts in the rear seat and without shoulder straps, in which case a child over forty pounds is exempt from the booster seat requirement.

The proper use of child passenger restraints is the most important factor in preventing death and disability in a car crash. Although it is currently legal for children over the age of four to be restrained only with seat belts, this practice exposes children to an increased risk of serious or even fatal injury. Seat belts were designed for older children and adults, not for children under eight years old whose size and physical development make seat belts less effective, and in some cases, unsafe.

Your Committee has amended this measure on the recommendation of the HPD by deleting the weight exemption of over eighty pounds.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 427, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 427, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.