STAND. COM. REP. NO. 550

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1387

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 1387 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE USE OF INTOXICANTS WHILE OPERATING A VEHICLE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to lower the blood alcohol concentration threshold for driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Governor; Department of Transportation; Department of Health; one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council; Hawaiʻi Police Department; Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu; Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Hawaiʻi; Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition; AAA Hawaiʻi; Hina Mauka; Mothers Against Drunk Driving; ProArts Playhouse Maui; Lokahi Treatment Centers; Hawaiʻi Alcohol Policy Alliance; Mala Hanai Pua LLC; Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety; Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii; Hawaiʻi Bicycling League; SparksInitiatives; Pure Jiu-Jitsu; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of the Public Defender. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Your Committee finds that between 2012 and 2021, there were three hundred fifty-four fatalities involving a driver with a blood alcohol concentration of greater than 0.08 in Hawaii. Your Committee further finds that although existing law makes it an offense to operate a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher, impairment begins much earlier at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05. A driver with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05 can experience lowered alertness, reduced coordination, impaired judgement, and difficulty tracking movements. Your Committee further finds that in 2019, Utah lowered its blood alcohol concentration limit to 0.05 and found a fatal crash rate reduction of 19.8 percent in the first year after the new lower rate was put into place. Your Committee believes that reducing the threshold for blood alcohol concentration will save lives and improve the safety of the State's roadways.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

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 H.B. No. 1387, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1387, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

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

____________________________

DARIUS KILA, Chair