STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1025

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 312

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 312 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AUDIBLE VEHICLE REVERSE WARNING SYSTEMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect the State's residents from disruptive noise pollution and utilize safer vehicular reversing practices by requiring the use of broadband reversing alarms instead of tonal alarms for state and county vehicles purchased after January 1, 2028.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation and Kalihi Palama Neighborhood Board No. 15.

Your Committee finds that reversing alarms currently employed by commercial and construction vehicles contribute to urban noise pollution, which disrupts the daily routines of the State's residents. Your Committee further finds that while the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires the use of reversing alarms on certain vehicles to protect people from accidental injury or death, OSHA regulations do not require a specific type of sound alarm, allowing for the use of broadband sound reversing alarms. Accordingly, this measure will reduce noise pollution and improve urban safety by requiring certain vehicles to use broadband reversing alarms instead of tonal alarms.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 312 and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair