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Kokua Line
June Watanabe
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SSN should not be released in traffic report
Question: I got into an accident earlier this year and filled out a Motor Vehicle Accident Report. It asked for my Social Security number so I entered it. I found out that the report is given out to interested parties with the SSN included. With the problems with identity theft, shouldn't the SSN be secured and maybe deleted when giving out the accident report to anyone?
I gave the information because it was asked for. Why is it necessary? I am giving this information to a government entity that should be more responsible for the information given it. Shouldn't asking for the SSN be a thing of the past? They learned that the SSN should not be on the driver's license, so couldn't the license number be requested for in these reports instead?
If necessary, the SSN could be asked for in the application for a license and that information could be in the secured files if that information is necessary.
Answer: Your Social Security number should not have been given out.
Copies of traffic accident reports are given to "anyone who has an interest" in the accident, such as an injured person or the parents or guardians, or someone whose property was damaged, explained Maj. William Chur, of the Honolulu Police Department's Records Division.
However, when copies are given to someone other than the person who filed a report, Social Security numbers are redacted, he said.
"We cannot offer an explanation" as to why your number was given out, except that it "may have been an oversight," he said. He said measures were being put in to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Q: Are they going to put a bus stop at the Makapuu Lookout, where there's a new parking lot?
A: No, not for now.
Improvements at the site have increased the number of people going to the lookout, acknowledged James Burke, chief of the city Department of Transportation Service's Public Transit Division.
But "those numbers do not appear to justify an additional bus stop at this time," he said. He added that the Department of Transportation Services has not received any requests for a bus stop in the area.
"If conditions change and a need arises," Burke said, the city will consider asking the state Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over that section of Kalanianaole Highway, about locating a bus stop at the lookout.
But he pointed out that there is an existing bus stop nearby, at Sea Life Park, as well as safety and other constraints.
He explained that a stop could only be located on the lookout side of Kalanianaole Highway.
"Lack of accessibility for disabled persons and safety concerns rule out a bus stop on the opposite side," he said.
Also, "every new stop means a potentially longer trip for buses on that route," Burke said. "In order to make the most of our resources, we have been improving our system of bus stops across Oahu, and that has meant consolidating some stops."
Got a question or complaint? Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered. E-mail to
kokualine@starbulletin.com.
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