[ OUR OPINION ]
Speeding excessively
should be a felonyFEDERAL traffic safety efforts are focused almost entirely on drunken driving and safety belts. Speeding -- even at dangerously high speeds -- has gone nearly unnoticed. The problem burst upon Hawaii's radar two years ago when Holy Trinity schoolteacher Elizabeth Kekoa was killed in a traffic crash that authorities blamed on another motorist's racing. Stiffer penalties are needed to discourage such treacherous conduct.
THE ISSUE
The state Legislature is considering a bill that would make it a felony to drive 30 mph or more above the posted speed limit.
Kathryn Swanson, chairwoman of the Governors Highway Safety Association, says speeding has become the neglected "stepchild" of highway safety. While national seat-belt use has gained widespread compliance, traffic fatalities are at an all-time high.
"We believe this is largely because drivers are speeding and generally not obeying traffic laws," she says.
A project monitoring traffic on Maine's interstate highways revealed that the average speed was 85 mph along a stretch where the limit was 65 mph. Of the 2,000 speeding tickets issued, 351 were for speeds of 95 or higher.
Swanson says the problem began to grow after the repeal of the national 55 mph speed limit, causing many motorists to conclude that speed limits were little more than guidelines. Swanson says speeding, unlike drunk driving, too often is regarded as "cool," especially by young males.
The state Senate Transportation Committee has approved a bill that would make exceeding the posted speed limit by 30 mph or more a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000 and a one-year driver's license suspension. Repeat offenses would include a license suspension of three years and forfeiture of the speeder's vehicle.
Hawaii law makes racing on a highway a petty misdemeanor, with a maximum criminal sanction of as much as six months -- a maximum sentence rarely if ever imposed -- and a fine of up to $500. Prosecutors say Nicholas Tudisco, charged with manslaughter for Kekoa's death, was racing at 100 mph in an area where the limit was half that.
Jack Tonaki, the state public defender, argues that the bill is too harsh, making it a felony to commit an act that may not have caused any serious injury or death. That, he says, unfairly would make the offense comparable to first-degree terroristic threatening, which can be charged if a person threatened another "with the use of a dangerous instrument" without actually injuring or killing anybody. Actually, it is not a bad comparison at all.
Making driving at 30 mph or more above the limit a felony would be a dramatic step, but Hawaii would not be the first state to make dangerous speeding a felony. A Michigan law defines felonious driving as driving "carelessly and heedlessly in willful and wanton disregard of the rights and safety of others" in cases where no one was injured or killed.
