COUNCILMAN TOM BERG RESOLVES TO REMOVE UNINSURED MOTORISTS 

PUBLIC HEARING: JANUARY 10, at 9:00 A.M. at HONOLULU HALE

by the Committee On Safety, Economic Development And Government Affairs

News Release from Office of Councilmember Tom Berg (Ewa, Waianae)

(HONOLULU HALE)– West Oahu Councilman Tom Berg introduced two City Council Resolutions that have been scheduled for a hearing next week that urge the legislature to implement enforcement procedures to remove the uninsured motorists from the roads.

RESO11-308 urges the legislature to pass legislation requiring motor vehicle insurance carriers to provide information to the counties for development of a system to easily identify uninsured drivers and motor vehicles.

RESO11-307 urges the Hawaii state legislature to require proof of motor vehicle insurance to purchase fuel.

Uninsured drivers are adding to congestion on the City’s already overcrowded roadways. The cost to the City to implement these enforcement procedures is estimated to be about $90,000 and would remove more cars from the roads than the $5.1 billion dollar rail system

Currently, uninsured motorists are an extreme hazard to society and some drivers are habitual law violators who drive under the influence and are extremely high risk to the public’s safety. In addition, the high costs of paying for damage caused by uninsured motorists are passed on to the law biding motoring public through an extra premium.

According to the insurance commissioner, seventeen- percent of the drivers on Hawaii’s roads are uninsured. In 2010, State Data Book stated there are 618,975 licensed drivers of which 122,445 (17%) are uninsured vehicles that should not be on the roads. Currently, violations of the motor vehicle insurance requirement are hard to discover since motorists can cancel their policies right after they get their safety check and continue to use an unauthorized proof of insurance card for the remaining term of the policy.

“These measures if implemented would make it almost impossible to put a tank of gas in a stolen vehicle and also would provide traffic congestion relief without any road construction headaches or tax increases,” stated Berg, adding “Even with the rail in full operation, we will still be in a transportation crisis and my solutions are worth exploring. Since the legislature and city council have taken a position we cannot build our way out of traffic congestion, extreme measures to get compliance as to who should and who should not be on the roads must be enforced to a greater degree.”

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Councilman Tom Berg· ph: (808) 768-5001· fax: (808) 768-5011

· email: tberg@honolulu.gov· website:www.councilmanberg.com