STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2282

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2715

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Transportation and Energy, to which was referred S.B. No. 2715 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLE INSPECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that motor vehicles safety inspections be conducted every two years rather than annually.

     Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Transportation and Aloha Shell Service.

     Your Committee finds that data from a report released in August of 2015 by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that only sixteen states currently require periodic motor vehicle safety inspections.  Of those sixteen states, Hawaii is one of eleven that requires inspections to be conducted on an annual basis, while five states require inspections to be conducted on either a biennial or other basis.  The results of the GAO study reveal that the existence of annual motor vehicle inspection programs does not produce conclusive evidence of improving vehicle safety conditions.  Crash rates before and after the elimination of motor vehicles safety inspection programs varied little from year to year following the elimination of inspection programs.

     Your Committee further finds that the current annual inspection program is an undue hardship to many of Hawaii's residents, especially those in rural areas.  The recent decrease in availability of safety inspectors and limited business hours of inspection operators favors a shift from annual to biennial inspections.  However, it is not the intent of your Committee to increase the fees collected for inspection services performed on a biennial schedule.

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Energy that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2715, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2715, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Energy,

________________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair