Report Title:

Motor Vehicle Insurance; Statewide Database

Description:

Appropriates general funds to the motor vehicle and licensing division of the City and County of Honolulu to develop and operate a motor vehicle insurance database that is interactive with the statewide motor vehicle registration computer file. Requires the system to be operational by 1/1/04. (SD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1055

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLE INSURANCE.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature has firmly established that the privilege of driving a motor vehicle must be conditioned upon the ability to adequately compensate those who are injured as result of a motor vehicle accident. This requires participation by all drivers in Hawaii’s system of motor vehicle insurance; however, the legislature finds that the system has failed to encourage adequate participation as evidenced by the percentage of uninsured drivers, which has been estimated to be as high as thirty-five per cent by a variety of sources.

The legislature further finds that one of the primary reasons for this failure is the lack of an effective mechanism to provide law enforcement officers with immediate access to accurate data that would allow them to determine whether a vehicle is uninsured. This Act is intended to establish a statewide information system, utilizing the most current technology, to enable the immediate and accurate determination by law enforcement officers and the judiciary of the existence of motor vehicle insurance in compliance with article 10C of chapter 431, Hawaii Revised Statutes. The legislature is confident that the creation, maintenance, and utilization of this information system will significantly increase the level of participation in Hawaii’s motor vehicle insurance system and thereby enhance the fairness of the system for all of Hawaii’s citizens by more equitably distributing the cost of the system among all drivers and more effectively providing for the victims of motor vehicle accidents.

SECTION 2. Section 431:10C-107, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§431:10C-107 Verification of insurance: motor vehicles. (a) Every insurer shall issue to its insureds a motor vehicle insurance identification card for each motor vehicle for which the basic motor vehicle insurance coverage is written.

(1) The identification card shall contain the following:

[(1)] (A) Name of make and factory or serial number of the motor vehicle; provided that insurers of five or more motor vehicles which are under common registered ownership and used in the regular course of business shall not be required to indicate the name of make and the factory or serial number of each motor vehicle;

[(2)] (B) Policy number;

[(3)] (C) Names of the insured and the insurer; and

[(4)] (D) Effective dates of coverage including the expiration date.

[(b)] (2) The identification card shall be in the insured motor vehicle at all times and shall be exhibited to a law enforcement officer upon demand.

[(c)] (3) The identification card shall be resistant to forgery by whatever means appropriate. The commissioner shall approve the construction, form, and design of the identification card to ensure that the card is forgery resistant.

[(d)] (4) The commissioner shall issue a certificate of self-insurance periodically, as necessary, for use in each motor vehicle insured under section 431:10C-105.

[(e)] (5) The identification card issued by an insurer shall not be issued for a period exceeding the period for which premiums have been paid or earned; provided that this [subsection] paragraph shall apply only to the first application of a person for a motor vehicle insurance policy and shall not apply to applications for commercial and fleet vehicles.

(b) Every insurer shall establish and maintain an information system that enables the insurer, upon the issuance of a policy of motor vehicle insurance, to electronically transmit the vehicle identification number of the insured vehicle to a designated government database. Transmission of the information shall be made as soon as possible, and in any event, no later than twenty-four hours from the effective date of the policy."

SECTION 3. The motor vehicle and licensing division of the department of customer services of the city and county of Honolulu shall develop and operate a database to receive the data that is required to be electronically transmitted by section 431:10C-107, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as amended by section 2 of this Act. The database shall:

(1) Be interactive with the motor vehicle registration computer file;

(2) Be capable, on a continuous basis, of receiving the data from all insurers and of being remotely accessed by all law enforcement officers in the State, the judiciary, and counties having authority to enforce the provisions of article 10C of chapter 431, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

(3) Incorporate adequate technologies to manage, safeguard, and selectively control access to the database, including distributed information acuity manager, cross-platform audit log correlator security manager, and real-time security situational awareness.

The motor vehicle and licensing administrator shall select a qualified contractor to work with insurers and appropriate state and county agencies to develop and maintain the database and any necessary processes that will minimize the costs of compliance for the insurers and state and county agencies. The motor vehicle and licensing administrator shall select a qualified contractor to develop, maintain, and operate a designated government statewide information system database that is capable of being accessed by all law enforcement officers in the State, the judiciary, and counties having authority to enforce the provisions of article 10C of chapter 431, Hawaii Revised Statutes. The database and statewide information system shall be fully developed and operational no later than January 1, 2004.

SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2003-2004, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005, for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the city and county of Honolulu for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 6. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003; provided that section 2 shall take effect on January 1, 2004.