Bills to reintroduce
traffic cams advance

House lawmakers have advanced two bills to bring back traffic cameras to nab speeders and red-light runners.

Both bills would result in citations being mailed to the registered owner of the offending car and a picture being snapped of the driver.

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If the photo is not of the owner and the person in the photo cannot be found, the ticket would need to be dropped, said Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor Lori Nishimura.

Similar proposals to catch speeders and red-light runners have failed in recent years. In 2002 the state aborted its traffic camera system that placed cameras in unmarked vans parked along roadways to catch speeders.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Souki, a co-sponsor of the bills that advanced yesterday, said the cameras would make drivers more careful. However, Souki (D, Waihee-Wailuku) said he expects a public uproar as the bills advance.

Commercial driver Milton Imada told committee members that such cameras run counter to the aloha spirit of the state and "lead Hawaii down a dangerous path of eroding civil liberties."

But Dolores Mollring, chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said the cameras are a solution to unsafe drivers.

When Mollring walks her grandson through downtown, they make a game out of counting drivers who run red lights at intersections, she said after the hearing.

At the crossing at Bishop Street and Vineyard Boulevard, at least one or two cars charge across the intersection on red lights, she said.

"I'll fight this to the bitter end," Mollring said.