Hawaii lawmakers are getting serious about speeding and this month passed a bill that, if signed by Gov. Josh Green, will enable the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to add 10 automated enforcement systems at busy Oahu intersections. Sharing their location with the recently installed cameras for nabbing red light infractions, the speed-detecting units are a step toward placing similar hardware in areas that need it most — school and residential zones.
Recent collisions involving pedestrians, tragically punctuated by the 2023 hit-and-run death of a 16-year-old McKinley High School student who was on her way to school, underscore the need for rigorous application of the law.
It was DOT that endorsed the original intent of Senate Bill 2443, which called for implementation of cameras to enforce speed limits on state or county highways. Initial amendments targeted enforcement at school zones — a limit of 10 to start — but that meaningful change morphed and became diluted along a circuitous legislative route, ending with consensus to deploy at sites with existing red light cameras.
A total of $5 million is earmarked for the purchase, installation and operation of 10 radar devices, which will work in concert with already installed cameras to assist in the accurate determination of vehicle speeds. Based on data collected by the monitoring equipment, a summons or citation is generated by a third party and reviewed by police.
Last week, DOT Director Ed Sniffen said citations would be issued by the Honolulu Police Department after reviewing camera footage and using discretion to consider factors surrounding each incident. The process mirrors current standards of speeding enforcement. Still, automated citation systems are among the most reviled forms of traffic enforcement; there is no arguing with a camera, no pleading your case to a radar device and mailed citations arrive days or weeks after the incident.
Well aware of a collective discontent with an ilk of speed enforcement — at least with many Hawaii drivers — the bill extends an equitable, benefit-of-the-doubt olive branch that triggers citations only when a vehicle is moving more than 5 miles per hour over posted signs. An additional $10 surcharge will be imposed — and deposited into a neurotrauma special fund — if recorded speeds exceed the speed limit by 10 mph. Owners of vehicles exceeding the maximum by 30 mph or more, or traveling 80 mph or more irrespective of posted limits, will be fined $250. From there, fines jump to $300 and $500 for second and third violations, respectively, if committed within a year of the first violation.
The rollout would be similar to DOT’s 2022 to 2023 red light camera installation, with a public outreach campaign launched at least 60 days before enforcement goes live. To further inure drivers passing through these areas to heightened speed limit administration, speeders detected in the first 30 days will be issued warnings instead of citations.
And there will likely be a glut of transgressions. DOT said more than 6,500 drivers were recorded going 11 or more miles over the posted speed limit at one intersection slated to receive the speed camera/radar package.
There is bound to be pushback, but the penalty table is clearly defined and, it’s worth pointing out again, based on speed limits that are hard-and-fast rules, not suggestion. Camera-based monitoring is dispassionate in its enforcement of laws designed to protect both drivers and pedestrians. Whether Hawaii’s speed limits — most of which have remained static for decades — are fair is well beyond the scope of SB 2443.
The bill is an opportunity to rein in drivers who too regularly flout the rules of the road, and it should be signed into law. School zones are unquestionably more imperiled by speeders than those 10 intersections staked out by DOT, but the city needs to start somewhere, and fast.
