STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1017

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 971

S.D. 2

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. 971, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAFFIC,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Provide that if a law enforcement officer lawfully stops a motor vehicle and the operator is cited for driving without a valid license, the officer shall not permit the operator to resume the use of the motor vehicle;

(2) Require the motor vehicle to be moved by a licensed driver or towed at the owner's expense; and

(3) Provide that the cited operator is responsible for arranging the operator's transportation from the scene of the stop.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association, and one individual.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.

Your Committee finds that the State has one of the highest rates of fatal car crashes involving an unlicensed driver in the nation, with nearly one-fifth of all fatal crashes involving an unlicensed driver. This measure will reduce motor vehicle crashes and fatalities by removing unlicensed drivers from the State's roadways.

Your Committee notes that there may be circumstances where a stop may not be lawful but, during the stop, the officer learns that the driver does not have a license. Your Committee further notes that it may be beneficial to amend this measure to insert language to state that this measure will not interfere with county law and practices so long as the unlicensed driver does not continue to drive the vehicle. Your Committee believes that these issues merit further consideration and respectfully requests future committees consider these issues, should they choose to deliberate on this measure.

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

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. 971, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 971, S.D. 2.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair