Report Title:

Child Endangerment

Description:

Establishes the offense of endangering the welfare of a child in a motor vehicle. (HB289 HD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

289

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to child endangerment.

 

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

SECTION 1. Chapter 709, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§709-    Endangering the welfare of a child in a motor vehicle. (1) Notwithstanding chapter 571 or any other law to the contrary, a person commits the offense of endangering the welfare of a child in a motor vehicle if the person, whether or not charged with the care or custody of a child, recklessly endangers the child's physical or mental welfare by leaving the child unsupervised in a motor vehicle.

(2) Any law enforcement officer, firefighter, or rescue team personnel who observes a child left unsupervised in a motor vehicle and judges that the unsupervised child is in physical danger or poses a danger to others, may use whatever means reasonably necessary to protect the child or others and remove the child from the motor vehicle.

(3) If the person who left the unsupervised child in the motor vehicle cannot be located within a reasonable time, the law enforcement officer, firefighter, or rescue team personnel shall upon removing the child from the motor vehicle, attach a written notification of the child's removal to the motor vehicle and deliver the child to the custody of the child protective services agency of the department of human services.

(4) Law enforcement officers, firefighters, and rescue team personnel shall not be liable in any civil action to any party for any act performed in good faith under this section.

(5) Endangering the welfare of a child in a motor vehicle is a petty misdemeanor.

(6) As used in this section:

"Child" means a person under the age of nine.

"Rescue team personnel" means physicians, basic life support personnel, advanced life support personnel, surgeons, nurses, volunteers, or employees of the owners or operators of a hospital or authorized emergency vehicle who have been trained in basic or advanced life support and have been charged by the owners or operators of the hospital or authorized emergency vehicle with providing life support and resuscitation to persons who are in immediate danger of loss of life in cases of emergency.

"Unsupervised" means leaving a child in a motor vehicle:

(a) Without an adult; or

(b) With a minor under the age of fifteen."

SECTION 2. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.