City, state can't handle rail transit system

If our state and city government can't even provide basic road maintenance, how in the world can we believe they would be able to maintain a rail transit system?

John Pritchett
Honolulu

Traffic camera bills can be improved

State legislators, with the support of the Hawaii Insurance Council, want two bills to pass that would set up cameras at intersections to catch red light runners and vehicles that exceed posted speed limits.

Our legislators and insurance industry can further improve traffic safety by including in both bills the requirement that insurance companies provide a computer list of all insured vehicles, with daily reports of any changes. This would help remove uninsured vehicles from our roads, improve traffic flow and further reduce accidents.

A second addition to these bills should be able to require the insurance companies to reduce the cost of auto insurance policy premiums by not less than 25 percent on the same date the traffic cameras are activated. Per the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, its studies of other states and counties with traffic cameras showed a great reduction in the number of accidents. With such existing data, why should the insurance companies reap increased profits by maintaining high insurance premiums for an additional two years before our state insurance commissioner asks them to reduce their premiums? It would be unfair to all policyholders without these second additions to both bills.

Wilbert W.W. Wong
Kaneohe

Improve medical care before curbing suits

Legislation is moving through Congress to limit the amounts of medical malpractice lawsuits. A similar law was passed in California in the 1990s limiting medical malpractice liability to $250,000 per patient, which put an end to most such lawsuits since at this level most attorneys choose not to take such cases.

Such legislation should be preceded by legal requirements that hospitals maintain an adequate level of nursing care per patient, ensure that physicians remain diligent and institute procedures to reduce medical mistakes. After losing a parent in a hospital primarily concerned with cutting overhead, my concern with maintaining the ability of patients and family members to file lawsuits is more related to maintaining adequate levels of care than the possibility of pecuniary gain. Conservative lawmakers are approaching this issue solely from a one-sided perspective.

George Casen
Honolulu

Sierra Club head wants it both ways

Jeff Mikulina's Jan. 30 "Gathering Place" column on the failure of the bottle bill is like a father disavowing his son when he doesn't score a touchdown. As the Sierra Club's director, Mikulina worked hand-in-glove with the Legislature in crafting Hawaii's bottle bill. The Legislature passed a bill that was so unworkable it was doomed to failure but they passed it anyway just to get something, anything, to show the Sierra Club (Mikulina) that they were for the environment and against litter so they could receive the Sierra Club's coveted election endorsement.

They created a solution to a problem and the volume of the containers doesn't even make a dent in the landfill. A more sensible solution would have been to charge the present 1.5-cent nonrefundable fee and instead of using it to pay administrators, subsidize a curbside recycling program, provide a greater payment for consumers to recycle their cans and to hire the unemployed to patrol the roads for litter.

The recycling companies spent thousands of dollars lobbying the Legislature to ensure they would be paid a penny per container and to receive the returned aluminum cans that they used to pay for the failure of his legislation to do the job is unfair and insulting. Mikulina was ready to pat himself on the back if the bottle bill worked; he should now be willing to accept his share of the blame for a failed program.

Garry P. Smith
Ewa Beach

Social Security plan follows bad example

Privatization solves the Social Security problem in much the same way that the Iraq war solved the terrorism problem. Auwe!

Rick Lloyd
Honolulu

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Seeking state symbols

Hawaii has a state bird, a state fish and a state flower. What other symbols should the Aloha State have? For example, should we have a state insect? If so, what should it be? Or how about a state bento? Come up with your own categories and share them with Star-Bulletin readers.