HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

151

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE ON THE AVAILABILITY OF SPECIAL EQUIPMENT THAT LIMITS AN AUTOMOBILE'S SPEED AND THE ADVISABILITY OF enacting LEGISLATION TO REQUIRE THE USE OF GOVERNORS TO LIMIT AN AUTOMOBILE'S SPEED.

 

 

WHEREAS, the automotive aftermarket industry has found a friend in motorsports, taking their collaborations beyond the racetrack to the point where one industry expert has said that motorsports would not exist if it were not for the automotive aftermarket and its sponsorship support; and

WHEREAS, racing is also a perfect testing ground for aftermarket parts, as many technological innovations on today's modern vehicles are the result of race testing, and many common parts sold by the aftermarket retailers have been adopted by vehicle and part manufacturers to improve performance, including top speed; and

WHEREAS, every automobile sold in the United States has a speed governor programmed into the computer chip in its electronic control unit that limits the top speed of the vehicle to the maximum capacity of the vehicle's components such as suspension and tires; and

WHEREAS, the top speed programmed into the vehicle's computer routinely exceeds one hundred miles per hour, even though the top speed limit nationally is seventy-five miles per hour, with the Lexus IS300 governor set at one hundred forty-four miles per hour and the BMW M3 governor set at one hundred thirty-seven miles per hour; and

WHEREAS, there are widely and readily available aftermarket computer chips and related electronic equipment that can be used to defeat an automobile's governor, thereby allowing speeds even in excess of the high speeds already programmed into the electronic control unit and providing an incentive to motorsport enthusiasts to modify their cars with other high performance technology that would otherwise be underutilized if the speed governor were still operational; and

WHEREAS, although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States Department of Transportation has been asked many times over the past three decades to regulate speed governor settings and to set a maximum speed governor setting close to the maximum speed limits on our nation's highways, the agency has been unwilling or unable to do so; and

WHEREAS, speeding reduces a driver's ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a dangerous situation; and

WHEREAS, speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes, with speeding a contributing factor in thirty per cent of all fatal crashes nationally in 2001, or a total of 12,850 lives lost; and

WHEREAS, on Oahu alone, thirty-seven per cent of all fatal crashes in 2002 were related to speeding, and in the first ten months of 2003, over eighty per cent of all fatal crashes were speed-related; and

WHEREAS, speeding not only increases the risk of a crash but exponentially increases the risk of injury and death in crashes, with the impact of a crash doubling for every ten miles per hour increase in speed after fifty miles per hour, such that a crash at eighty miles per hour releases four hundred per cent more energy than a crash at sixty miles per hour; and

WHEREAS, our nation's most advanced occupant protection systems, including air bags and seat belts, were not designed to protect motorists even at today's legal highway speeds, let alone at illegal speeds; and

WHEREAS, in 2001 the estimated annual cost of speed-related crashes was $40.4 billion -- $76,865 per minute and $1,281 per second; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, the Senate concurring, that the state Department of Transportation, through its Motor Vehicle Safety Office, is requested to report to the Legislature on the availability of equipment designed to limit an automobile's speed and the advisability of enacting legislation to require the use of governors in automobiles that are manufactured with such equipment to limit the automobile's speed; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to consult with the Police Chiefs of the respective county police departments, automobile dealers and automobile specialty parts dealers or their respective trade associations, and motorsports enthusiasts and clubs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2005; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Transportation and the Police Chiefs of the respective county police departments.

 

 

Report Title:

Speeding; Speed Governors; Mandatory Use; Feasibility Report