SB2756

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2756
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to traffic violations.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds it has become common practice for people to use their wireless phones or other devices to send pictures, text messages, and emails. In 2006, it is estimated that the approximately 250,000,000 wireless phone subscribers in the United States sent nearly 158,000,000,000 text messages.

Although it is not known how many of these messages were sent or received by people who were operating motor vehicles, it is clear that driving while text messaging – or texting – is a growing phenomenon, particularly among younger drivers. Experts believe seventy-three per cent of wireless phone subscribers use their phones while driving. A Nationwide Insurance study estimated that twenty per cent of all drivers send or receive text messages, and sixty-six per cent of drivers between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four confessed in a Zogby International poll that they drive while texting.

In a recent briefing paper, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports that driver inattention is a factor in an estimated eighty per cent of motor vehicle crashes and sixty‑five per cent of near crashes. Each year, driver distraction is a factor in as many as 4,900,000 accidents, causing 34,000 fatalities, 2,100,000 injuries, and as much as $184,000,000,000 in economic loss.

The legislature further finds that while it is not clear how many of those crashes involved texting or even wireless phone use, several high-profile accidents have brought new focus to the issue. A teenager who was texting while driving in Colorado killed a bicyclist in 2005, and in June 2007, five members of a high school cheerleading squad were killed in New York when the young woman driving their vehicle lost control while allegedly sending a text message.

Currently, two states specifically prohibit driving while texting and at least four other states considered similar provisions in 2007.

The purpose of the Act is to ensure greater safety on Hawaii's streets, roads, and highways by prohibiting text messaging while driving.

SECTION 2. Chapter 291, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part I to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§291- Text messaging while driving; prohibition. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), no person operating a motor vehicle on a public street, road, or highway shall send, read, or write a text message by means of an electronic wireless communications device. A person does not send, read, or write a text message when the person reads, selects, or enters a phone number or name in a wireless communications device for the purpose of making a phone call.

(b) This section does not apply to a person operating:

(1) An authorized emergency vehicle; or

(2) A moving motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communications device to:

(A) Report illegal activity;

(B) Summon medical or other emergency help;

(D) Relay information between a transit or for-hire operator and that operator's dispatcher, in which the device is permanently affixed to the vehicle.

(c) Enforcement of this section by enforcement officers may be accomplished only as a secondary action when a person operating a motor vehicle has been detained for a suspected violation of this title.

(d) As used in this section:

"Electronic wireless communications device" means any device that provides to users the ability to send or receive electronic communications, but excluding a voice-activated global positioning or navigation system that is permanently affixed to the vehicle.

"Emergency vehicle" shall have the same meaning as provided in section 291-11.6.

(e) A person who violates this section shall be fined not more than $ for each violation."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________