LEGISLATURE 2006 SESSION
Plans for intersection cameras hit a red light
A proposal to set up cameras at intersections to try and catch red-light runners is dead this year after Senate lawmakers refused to add the program to a measure aimed at strengthening Hawaii's crosswalk law.
"Lost again," said House Transportation Chairman Joe Souki, who has tried to introduce the program each of the past three years. "We'll come back next year. We'll try again."
The red-light enforcement camera program is a remnant of the state's failed "van cam" photo enforcement project to catch speeders that was enacted in 2002 and repealed a few months later after immense public outcry.
It would have allowed counties to set up cameras at intersections to photograph license plates of red-light runners and mail a citation to the registered owner of the vehicle.
Souki (D, Waihee-Wailuku) inserted the provision into a Senate bill during the final weeks of the session. Senate members objected to the proposal, noting that it did not receive a hearing on their side.
"I think there's a lot of public concern about it," said Senate Ways and Means Chairman Brian Taniguchi (D, Moiliili-Manoa).
Lawmakers did pass the original measure, which increases fines and includes provisions to revoke a person's driver's license for repeated violations of the crosswalk law enacted last year. The law requires a driver to stop and yield to pedestrians who are in the motorist's half of the roadway or approaching closely from nearby lanes.