STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2040

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2449

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Transportation, International and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2449 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DRIVER LICENSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to make permanent Act 72, Session Laws of Hawaii 2005 (Act 72), which enacted the law on provisional licenses for persons under the age of eighteen.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this bill from the State Department of Transportation; Honolulu Motor Vehicle, Licensing and Permits Administration; State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company; Injury Prevention Advisory Committee; and Mothers Against Drunk Driving HAWAII.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     The purpose of provisional licensing is to improve traffic safety by establishing a driver licensing program consisting of a graduated driver licensing in three stages for persons under the age of eighteen.

     Act 72 is currently scheduled to sunset on January 9, 2011.  The sunset date was added in Senate Draft 2 to H.B. No. 150 (2005), in order for the Department of Transportation and Department of Health to compile and analyze all traffic and accident data to determine the effectiveness of this graduated licensing program in reducing traffic fatalities and accidents in the State.

Testimony indicated that prior to Act 72, teen drivers under the age of eighteen comprised 3.4 per cent of licensed drivers but accounted for ten per cent of all drivers involved in collisions.  Since Act 72, the number of sixteen year olds with driver licenses declined eighteen per cent, and the number of crashes associated with this age group decreased twenty-seven per cent.  The number of crashes for seventeen year olds decreased by fourteen per cent.

     Another significant change has been the number of evening collisions involving sixteen and seventeen year olds.  Because of the restrictions imposed on these drivers between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., there have been nineteen fewer crashes at night involving multiple minor aged passengers each year.

     Since the enactment of Act 72, the number of deaths among teens involved in collisions was reduced by sixty per cent for sixteen year olds and the same for seventeen year olds.  Your Committee finds that the number of lives saved attributable to Act 72, as well as the number of crashes reduced, is proof positive of Act 72's effectiveness.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, International and Intergovernmental Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2449 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, International and Intergovernmental Affairs,

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair