HILO — A trio of bills recently introduced to the state Legislature aim to improve the safety of Hawaii’s streets.
Hawaii House Bill 1749, introduced Monday, proposes a change in state law to require all operators and passengers of motorcycles and bicycles to wear helmets.
Meanwhile, Senate Bills 2229 and 2691 will, if passed, respectively prohibit anyone from driving a pickup truck with any passenger in the bed save in mitigating circumstances and would allow counties to place stricter limitations on passengers in pickup truck beds.
Each bill is motivated by a desire to prevent injuries or deaths on Hawaii’s roadways, but will likely face significant pushback from community members, lawmakers said.
“I’ve been here for 13 years, and I think we’ve had bills like this every other year or so,” said state Sen. Lorraine Inouye, who co-sponsored the pickup truck bills. “We’ll see how far it goes this time, but there’s always disagreements.”
Currently, Hawaii law prohibits passengers from riding in the back of pickup trucks unless there is no other available seating and then only if they remain seated and the bed is secure. The proposed Senate bills will seek to remove that exception, although exceptions in the event of a legal parade or if the passenger’s life is in danger will remain.
Inouye, a Democrat representing Hilo, Hamakua, Kohala, Waimea, Waikoloa and Kona, said the pickup truck issue is frequently opposed by rural farming communities, where passengers in truck beds are a common sight.
“Farming communities should recognize the need for these laws,” Inouye said.
Hawaii Police Department Sgt. Robert Pauole said without proper restraints, even a minor accident can lead to severe injuries to passengers in pickup beds, particularly if the passenger is ejected from the vehicle entirely.
“A person back there is completely vulnerable,” Pauole said, adding that the absence of seat belt increases a passenger’s risk of fatal injury in a crash by 45 percent.
Meanwhile, the House bill requiring motorcycle helmets likely will spark considerable backlash.
“If it does pass, I think a bunch of riders would give up riding entirely,” said Ellsworth Fontes, owner of Hilo motorcycle shop Ellsworth’s Custom Cycles.
The helmet bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Richard Creagan, D-N‘alehu, Ocean View, Captain Cook, Kealakekua, Kailua-Kona, who said he sympathizes with opponents of mandatory helmets, but believes that, on balance, the benefits of the law will outweigh the negatives.
Currently, all motorcylists and passengers under the age of 18 are required to wear helmets.
Frank DeGiacomo, legislative aide for Creagan, said a 2008 study found that mandatory helmets for motorcyclists would reduce fatalities by 42 percent and traumatic head injuries by 69 percent. He added that a traffic study from 2008 to 2012 found that motorcycle-related injuries were the fifth-leading cause of unintentional fatal injuries in the state.
However, Fontes argued that some motorcycle crashes can become fatal when a helmet puts excessive pressure on a rider’s neck.
“It should be a choice for the rider, not something that’s mandatory,” Fontes said. “It gives a false impression that, because you’re wearing a helmet, you can’t get hurt.”
The 2008 study found insufficient evidence to determine the effect of helmets on neck injuries.
Creagan said public awareness of the lasting effects of head trauma is much higher today than it has been in the past, thanks to high-profile research linking brain damage to football.
Last year, researchers found that 99 percent of 111 deceased professional football players showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found in brains with a history of trauma.
“There’s a tug-of-war between being protective and being a sort of nanny state,” Creagan said. “I don’t like making people do things, but I think overall it’s better for them and better for society to wear helmets.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com
The cronies have nothing better to do then to make more stupid laws. Why not a bill to have school buses require seat belts.
Agreed. More stupid laws not needed. They should enforce the ones they have or get rid of them altogether if the state has no intention of enforcing them. I’m pretty sure Hawaii can regulate itself into complete paralysis……
The arguments for and against are not backed up by statistics by the Author of the Article, nor do the questions seemed to have been asked…perhaps a bit more research is needed to complete the story?
On the fence. Higher motorcycle fatality rates due to not wearing helmets rids our communities faster of motorcyclists (and their loud polluting look-at-me machines). On the other hand, if these new laws means “a bunch of riders would give up riding entirely”, then that’s great.
Hopefully emissions standards are next. Doesn’t feel like paradise when everywhere you go you are hit in the face with unpleasant and unhealthy diesel pollution from loud pick-up trucks driven by large men with big egos (the bed of the trucks are usually empty). Feels like a third-world country, or to quote the man pickup-driving rural folk put in charge, a “sh*thole” country.
Helmets arguably can help reduce head injuries unless your head is like a rock but A much Larger problem is DUI drivers of cars especially when they are released to go drive drunk some more and cause accidents!
Given the almost total lack of enforcement of the cell phone use law, what is the point of yet more (we know better than you) laws?
I certainly have no sympathy for Hardly Abelson “lifestyle” riders that splatter their brains in the name of fashion, but it should be a choice freely made.
Democrats keep howling about “choice” but always are eager to pass more laws removing choice from non-politically correct aspects of our lives.