STAND. COM. REP. NO. 385

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 971

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 971 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAFFIC,"

beg 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 Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaiʻi Police Department, Office of the Public Defender, and State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.

Your Committees find that unlicensed drivers on the State's roads pose a significant public safety risk to themselves and others. While existing law allows law enforcement officers to cite unlicensed drivers, there is currently no requirement to prevent these cited drivers from immediately continuing to operate their vehicles unlawfully after receiving citations. This measure will address this problem by requiring motor vehicles used by cited unlicensed operators to be moved by a licensed driver or towed at the owner's expense.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Public Safety and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 971, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 971, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Public Safety and Military Affairs,

________________________________ BRANDON J.C. ELEFANTE, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair