STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1466

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 597

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 S.B. No. 597 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADMINISTRATIVE DRIVERS LICENSE REVOCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to extend the written review decision deadline for the issuance of a notice of administrative revocation of a driver's license.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; Department of Law Enforcement; Department of Transportation; Hawaiʻi Police Department; Honolulu Police Department; Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Hawaiʻi; and Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that hundreds of people in the State are injured every year in traffic incidents involving a driver who was under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. Your Committee further finds Hawaii is one of the few states that imposes a statutory deadline for the issuance of a decision regarding whether or not to administratively revoke the driver's license of an individual suspected of operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant. Extending this statutory deadline, as proposed by this measure, will allow the Administrative Driver's License Revocation Office more time to consider the toxicology results of breath or blood samples provided by a defendant and will ensure any administrative revocation of a driver license is based on complete toxicology evidence.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Reducing the mailing deadline proposed in this measure for written review decisions after an administrative revocation notice in alcohol- and drug-related cases to fourteen and twenty-eight days, respectively;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

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. 597, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 597, 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