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Police want safety
decals on bumper

Question: Would you please ask the Division of Motor Vehicles why it's necessary to require vehicle owners to put the safety inspection sticker on the bumper? Out-of-state plate owners are required to put an even larger out-of-state sticker on their bumpers in addition to the safety stickers. These stickers ruin the paint on the bumper. Anyone wanting to remove the stickers (for example, when taking a vehicle to the mainland) would need to have the bumper repainted. My vehicle already has a small scratch near the license plate from the metal attachment I was using for my stickers to avoid attaching them to my bumper (I recently found out that this attachment is no longer legal), and when I return to the mainland I will have to have the stickers professionally removed and the bumper repainted. I am sure that there are many permanent Hawaii residents who would also prefer to not have stickers on their vehicles, if for no other reason than it looks tacky. Suggestion #1: since safety inspection stickers are required for vehicle registration, why not make the month and year registration stickers larger so that police officers can see them from a distance and do away with the inspection stickers entirely? Suggestion #2: make the safety inspection and out-of-state stickers small enough to fit on the license plate.

Answer: The reason they're on the bumper is because law enforcement officials want to be able to see them on the rear of the vehicle.

The design and placement of the stickers are governed by state Department of Transportation rules, which, in part, say: "After the certificate of inspection is signed, a two-part inspection sticker shall be affixed by the inspector upon the right, most nearly vertical portion of the rear bumper of the vehicle or on another appropriate place where the sticker can be clearly viewed by a person who is 50 feet behind the vehicle ..."

Dennis Kamimura, administrator of the city Motor Vehicle & Licensing Division, acknowledged that other states that have mandatory safety or emission inspections have stickers that vary in size and placement -- some are placed in the front windshield, some in the rear window, some on the rear bumper.

We've explained before that the DOT, in the past, has proposed changing the rules to allow affixing the stickers to the inside of vehicles instead of on the bumpers. But police have opposed the change, because they want to be able to see the stickers "at a fast glance."

According to Kamimura, states that have inspection/registration stickers in the front windshield enforce the inspection/registration laws only when the vehicle is parked. That's not the case in Hawaii.

Local police are opposed to having the stickers in the front windshield "since they cannot view the stickers while traveling in the same direction as the vehicle," Kamimura said.

He said police also oppose placing the stickers in the rear window because there is no standardized area where the decal can be placed. For example, the stickers can't be placed on the rear window of convertibles with rear windows that lift or retract.

Kamimura also said that vehicle owners in some states that allow windshield stickers don't particularly like that placement if they've been victims of break-ins in which their windshields have been broken.

"People who are affected by break-ins prefer plate decals and bumper decals since the cost and inconvenience to repair a vehicle exceeds the cost for just obtaining replacement decals," he said.

Meanwhile, he said the registration and safety inspection stickers can't be combined into one.

He explained that new cars are registered for one year, but are now given safety checks that are valid for two years.

On top of that, once a vehicle is given a registration expiration month, that month does not change for the life of that vehicle, he said. However, the expiration month for safety checks, which are given for a 12-month period, can vary.

That's because, if, for some reason, you don't get a safety check in the 12th month, the next 12-month period begins with the month the safety check is finally obtained.

"Therefore, it is possible to have a different safety inspection expiration month even though you originally started with the same registration and safety inspection expiration month," Kamimura said.

We asked Kamimura, per your comment, why it is no longer legal to use the metal brackets to attach the safety stickers.

He said it is not "illegal" to use the metal decal holders, unless they somehow obscure the license plate. Kamimura pointed to Section 19-133.2-24(b) of the DOT rules, which say, in part, that safety decals "placed on or next to the license plate 'may' be a violation if it is considered by law enforcement personnel as obscuring the license plate since safety inspection decals are not authorized to be placed on the license plate, or not in vicinity of the right rear bumper."

Kamimura recommends contacting an auto body shop to remove the stickers without scratching the paint, saying it is a simple procedure.

Or, if any Kokua Line readers have a way of doing so that works, call 529-4773 and pass on any tips.

Auwe

To the young local male driving a small gray pickup truck in front of me on Friday afternoon, Oct. 15. As we were going up Likelike Highway, on the Kaneohe-side of the Wilson Tunnels, I saw him throw a full cup of soda outside his window onto the side of the highway -- ice, cup and all. It infuriated me. -- Cory

We had a similar complaint about someone throwing trash out the window of a vehicle in the Sept. 14 Kokua Line. Such a callous disregard for the environment infuriates many people. However, although you provided a license number, police say they can't cite someone unless they actually witness the littering themselves. In the past, you could call a state hotline to report such litterbugs, but that avenue no longer exists. For now, there is no agency that will follow up on littering from vehicles, although a city official said she hopes the city can set something up to handle such complaints in the future.

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