[ OUR OPINION ]
Graduated permit plan
for licensing teenagers
would make roads saferPREVIOUS Hawaii Legislatures have put the brakes on an important measure aimed at reducing teen traffic deaths and injuries, while most other states have gone forward and made their highways safer. Legislators should approve the bill in the current session by adopting changes to address concerns about the consequences of putting limits on the mobility of young drivers.
THE ISSUE
The Hawaii Legislature is considering a bill that would subject young drivers to a lengthy process before acquiring a driver's license.
Thirty-eight states have adopted rules that require beginning drivers to acquire learner's permits and provisional licenses before attaining full licensure, combined with nighttime and teenage passenger restrictions. Those programs have been found to reduce the number of accidents involving teenaged drivers by as much as one-third.
A proposal calling for a four-stage system of licensing has been approved by the House Transportation Committee and is now before the House and Senate judiciary committees. The system would include a six-month instruction permit, a provisional license for another six months or until the driver is 17, a four-year license after reaching 17 and a full, six-year license upon reaching 18.
The bill also would prohibit those under 18 from driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. unless accompanied by a licensed parent or guardian. It would limit the number of passengers in a vehicle driven by anyone under 18.
Similar bills have been rejected in previous sessions of the Legislature because of concerns about limiting teenagers' mobility in rural areas of neighbor islands. However, most states that have adopted graduated licensing programs allow exceptions in cases of driving to and from school or work and for farm-related activities. Including such exceptions should satisfy those concerns.
Such restrictions are needed because of the disproportionately high number of crashes and fatalities in accidents caused by teen-aged drivers. Teens comprise about 7 percent of all drivers nationwide but 14 percent of highway fatalities. About 20 percent of their driving is at night, but that is when half of their fatalities occur.
Those rates are high because of the young drivers' immaturity, resulting in risky practices such as speeding and tailgating, and inexperience behind the wheel, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Crashes involving teen drivers typically are single-car crashes involving driver error or speeding, often when other young people are in the car.
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Changes at Lihue Airport
should improve securitySECURITY operations at Lihue Airport should improve with a new director at the helm. Although more than a year has passed since questions arose when a number of management jobs were slipped to political friends of former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, it appears corrections have finally been made. In view of disturbing incidents that reflected inadequate safety measures, the progress is welcome.
THE ISSUE
An experienced law enforcement official will head TSA at the troubled Kauai facility.
An experienced security official will soon be in charge at Lihue Airport, the Star-Bulletin's Anthony Sommers reports. Jack Kelley, a Marine veteran who has worked as a police officer, customs investigator and security official for the federal government, will take over as director of the Transportation Security Administration office on Kauai.
The appointment comes after two incidents in which security was breached by a man armed with a gun and another with a knife. In addition, 60 of 84 TSA Lihue screeners had complained about favoritism and other issues to Congressman Ed Case, whose inquiries to the U.S. Transportation Department prompted federal officials to investigate.
Even before the screeners sought help last summer, job appointments at the airport raised troubling issues when the first director, Robert Schoonmaker -- who has since been removed -- hired four members of the outgoing mayor's administration, most of whom seemed without the necessary qualifications for security work.
For example, Wally Rezentes Jr., who was Kusaka's finance director, was made supervisor of baggage screeners, a position requiring military or police experience that he did not have, while several senior police officials weren't even interviewed for the job. Schoonmaker said that Kusaka, a Republican who was a member of President Bush's 2000 campaign committee in Hawaii, had urged him to hire her patronage employees who were about to be out of work, an outrageous display of political favoritism.
That seemed to be the atmosphere for TSA's operations at Lihue Airport. When job openings were advertised, it was done only on a federal Web site usually read solely by federal employees, leaving Garden Island residents unaware of the positions. Meanwhile, state airport officials were unable to get TSA at Lihue to upgrade physical security facilities.
Representative Case believes Kelley will be a good administrator, and with all but one of Kusaka's chums gone, Kauai travelers can be assured safety will be the priority.
