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. 850 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create a traffic offense with mandatory sentences for a person driving a vehicle at a speed exceeding the posted speed limit by 25 miles per hour or more, or by traveling at 80 miles per hour or more regardless of the speed limit.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, Honolulu Police Department, and Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney. Testimony in opposition was received from the Public Defender.

This measure protects the motoring public from persons who drive at excessive speeds. Current speeding laws and court-imposed fines do not adequately address the severity of the infraction and therefore are not deterrents to driving at high speeds.

Your Committee finds that speeding in excess of the posted speed limit has been identified as a major contributor to severe traffic crashes and fatalities. This measure is intended to enhance the human factors in traffic safety by controlling errant driving behavior.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.

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. 850, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 850, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.