A bill to relax the state’s annual motor vehicle safety check requirement on the neighbor islands has been rejected by key leaders in the state Senate and appears to be dead for the year.
The Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection and the Transportation committees have both rejected a proposal by the state House of Representatives to allow vehicles in counties with fewer than 300,000 residents — meaning the neighbor islands — to be inspected just once every two years.
House Bill 1089, House Draft 2, would also have doubled the vehicle registration fee for neighbor island motorists while reducing the frequency of the required inspections by half.
Senate Consumer Protection Chairwoman Rosalyn Baker said the measure was shelved in part because there hasn’t been any great outcry over safety checks.
"I haven’t heard from constituents saying this is something you ought to address," said Baker (D, West Maui-South Maui). "For the ones that I hear from regularly, this isn’t on their radar screen."
The House proposal to cut back on the frequency of required safety inspections was opposed by the state Department of Transportation, which cited research by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that found vehicle inspections reduce accident rates.
Safety inspections in Hawaii last year revealed 12,568 defective tires, 6,947 defective brake lights and 3,715 defective headlights, and those problems would not have been identified without the safety checks, according to written testimony by the DOT.
"These defects, if left unchecked for a two-year period, could potentially place vehicles that are unsafe on our roads," the department said.
House Consumer Protection Chairman Angus McKelvey has contended that many of the corrections made during the safety inspections are "cosmetic," and said inspections every two years should be adequate for the neighbor islands.
McKelvey (D, West Maui-Maalaea-North Kihei) also cited testimony that there are fewer service stations that perform safety checks on the neighbor islands than on Oahu.
