STAND. COM. REP. NO. 855

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 494

       S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 494, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONTINUOUS ALCOHOL MONITORING FOR REPEAT OFFENDERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require persons charged with operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant or habitually operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant to be fitted with a continuous alcohol monitoring device if the person:

     (1)  Is so charged within five years of a prior conviction for operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant or habitually operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant; or

     (2)  Has a criminal investigation or prosecution that is pending for one or more prior charges of operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant or habitually operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu; and SCRAM Systems.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Smart State, LLC.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawaii.

     Your Committees find that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that forty-one percent of all traffic fatalities in Hawaii were alcohol related, versus the national average of thirty-one percent.  Moreover, between 2008 and 2012, eleven percent of all alcohol-related fatalities in Hawaii involved a driver who was previously convicted of operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant.  This measure seeks to decrease alcohol-related fatalities and accidents by requiring repeat offenders to be fitted with a continuous alcohol monitoring device.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting language that established procedures for a court to determine whether a person lacks financial ability to pay for the monitoring device;

     (2)  Inserting language that requires the prosecuting attorney of each county and the Attorney General to contract with selected continuous alcohol monitoring device vendors to provide financial relief for the costs of the monitoring devices to certain persons;

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion; and

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 494, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 494, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means,

________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair