STAND. COM. REP. 2127

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2599

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 2599 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify the offense of negligent homicide in the second degree if the person causes the death of another person by the operation of a vehicle at a speed thirty miles or more per hour greater than the maximum speed limit.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Transportation and Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney. Testimony in opposition was received from the Honolulu Police Department and Office of the Public Defender.

This measure is intended to deter excessive speeding that commonly results in death. What constitutes excessive speeding may be a matter of opinion, but your Committee finds that thirty miles above the posted speed limit is excessive per se. An example is a driver going seventy miles per hour in a forty mile per hour speed limit zone. If the speed limit is fifteen miles per hour, driving at a speed of forty-five miles per hour is excessive for that zone. Each speed zone is different and is designed by traffic engineers to be appropriately safe for that stretch of road or highway. Driving at no more than the posted speed limit is deemed a safe speed. Driving beyond that speed limit is progressively more dangerous with the rise in speed. There should be little room for personal judgment of the driver who believes that going forty-five is still safe in a fifteen mile per hour zone. The proof is in the resulting fatality.

Your Committee has amended this measure to clarify that driving less than thirty miles over the speed limit still constitutes an offense if the vehicle is being operated in a negligent manner.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2599, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2599, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair