Question: I read your Sept. 27 column (is.gd/ kokualine09272011) regarding drivers being required to stop for pedestrians on a driver’s half of the roadway. However, I recently was fined by a judge at Wahiawa District Court for not remaining stopped on California Avenue fronting Leilehua High School. The road there is two lanes, one up and one down. I stopped at the crosswalk as a pedestrian was approaching from the school. When he was three-quarters across the street, I started moving but was pulled over by a patrol officer. He advised me about the exact letter of the law — that I should have remained stopped — but told me that the judge would probably dismiss my case. However, in court I was told I was not supposed to move my vehicle until all pedestrians were out of the crosswalk on either side of the road. So, what’s the law?
Question: I received a ticket from a police officer who told me that any time a pedestrian has one foot in the crosswalk, I have to stop. I had just made a left turn from Richards Street onto King Street, heading Diamond Head, and was in the second to the far left lane of six lanes. I had already let three pedestrians cross when I started to move just as a pedestrian in the far right side of King Street stepped into the crosswalk. I went to Honolulu District Court on July 25, and the judge said any time a pedestrian is in the crosswalk, I was wrong for driving through. But based on what police Maj. Kurt Kendro said in your Sept. 27 column, I wasn’t wrong, because the pedestrian was not on my half of the roadway when I proceeded. There seems to be a lot of confusion about the pedestrian law. Can you help clarify this?
Answer: The law does not require you to stop if the pedestrian is not on your side of the roadway, unless he or she is endangered.
Although it appears neither pedestrian in your cases appeared to be in danger, it boiled down to a judicial determination based on "the particular facts."
HPD stands by the response provided by Maj. Kurt Kendro, said HPD spokeswoman Caroline Sluyter.
"While it certainly would be prudent for drivers to stop and yield to a pedestrian crossing the street regardless of the pedestrian’s position in the crosswalk, the law itself does not make stopping mandatory unless the pedestrian is on the driver’s half of the roadway," Sluyter said.
The law in question is Section 291C-72 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, "Pedestrians’ right-of-way in crosswalks," which says drivers shall stop and remain stopped when a pedestrian is either "upon the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling; or approaching the vehicle so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger, and shall not proceed until the pedestrian has passed the vehicle and the driver can safely proceed."
From the state Judiciary’s standpoint, it is up to each judge to make a determination, based on the facts, said spokeswoman Marsha Kitagawa.
"If the pedestrian was in the other half of the roadway in which the vehicle was traveling, HRS Section 291C-72 requires that the court then determine whether the pedestrian was ‘approaching the vehicle so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger’ and whether ‘the pedestrian has passed the vehicle and the driver can safely proceed,’" Kitagawa said.
"It is up to each judge to apply the applicable law to the particular facts — as presented by the citing officer, the motorist and, if available, other witnesses — on a case-by-case basis," Kitagawa said.
AUWE
To the lazy, inconsiderate people who leave shopping carts in the middle of parking lots instead of returning them to the store area or designated cart return space. These unattended carts block available parking spaces and can cause damage to parked cars. — Irritated
Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
