Bill Text: HI SB1309 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

Hawaii Senate Bill 1309 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Traumatic Brain Injuries; Helmets; All-terrain Vehicles; Motorcycles; Mopeds; Motor Scooters

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-02-12 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDL. [SB1309 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB1309-Amended.html

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 192

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1309

S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

Your Committee on Transportation and International Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1309 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require helmet use for individuals under the age of eighteen operating or riding motorcycles, motor scooters, mopeds, and all-terrain vehicles; and to require persons engaging in the business of renting these vehicles to furnish a safety helmet to renters under the age of eighteen of motorcycles, motor scooters, mopeds, and all-terrain vehicles who will drive or ride on these vehicles. This measure also defines "all-terrain vehicle" and "safety helmet".

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Honolulu Police Department, The Queen's Medical Center, and six individuals. Testimony in opposition to this measure was received from one individual.

Your Committee finds that traumatic brain injury affects a large number of people in our State, including children. According to testimony of The Queen's Medical Center, in 2010 more than one-third of those treated in the emergency department for traumatic brain injury were eighteen years and younger. Of the patients seen at The Queen's Medical Center who are involved in motorcycle and moped crashes, less than forty percent wear a helmet. Because of this, more patients die or are permanently incapacitated from head trauma than would occur if all or nearly all of them wore a helmet at the time of their crash.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and International Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1309, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1309, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and International Affairs,

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair