STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2396

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 213

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 213 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to ease the restrictions placed on motorists who wish to alter their vehicle by repealing section 286-85, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which requires a reconstruction certification for vehicles that have been altered as defined by the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation; Serenity Landscaping, LLC; Drag Tech Racing; 808 Street Rods; and one hundred thirty-two individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Honolulu Police Department, Hawaii Insurers Council, and five individuals.

Your Committee finds that the intent of section 286-85, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is to ensure that modifications to motor vehicles do not result in a significant degradation in safety. However, your Committee also finds that the people who inspect these reconstructed vehicles are not engineers and often lack the expertise necessary to make an accurate judgment of the quality of work that was done on the modifications. Your Committee further finds that crash data from the Department of Transportation do not indicate that reconstructed vehicles are a safety problem on Hawaii roads. Moreover, the reconstructed vehicle inspection program is required only on Oahu, not the neighbor islands. Your Committee notes the concerns of the Honolulu Police Department, who testified that the passage of this bill could allow dangerous modifications to the safety equipment of vehicles to go unchecked without safety oversight.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive conforming amendment that removes a reference to "reconstructed vehicles" in the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 213, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 213, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

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

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair