§291D-1 Purpose. (a) Act 222, Session Laws of Hawaii 1978, began the process of decriminalizing certain traffic offenses, not of a serious nature, to the status of violations. In response to a request by the legislature, the judiciary prepared a report in 1987 that recommended, among other things, further decriminalization of traffic offenses, elimination of most traffic arraignments, disposition of uncontested violations by mail, and informal hearings where the violation or the proposed penalty is questioned. The legislature finds that further decriminalization of certain traffic offenses and streamlining of the handling of those traffic cases will achieve a more expeditious system for the judicial processing of traffic infractions. The system of processing traffic infractions established by this chapter will:
The legislature further finds that this chapter will not require expansion of the current traffic division of the district courts, but will achieve greater efficiency through more effective use of existing resources of the district courts.
(b) The legislature finds that the pandemic related to the coronavirus disease 2019 necessitated the imposition of emergency period rules in an attempt to control the spread of the disease in the State. The thousands of violations of the emergency period rules caused an examination of the ability to impose infractions for lesser offenses as an alternative to using the Penal Code and to allow for more efficient use of the judicial system. The system of processing traffic infractions under this chapter was enacted in 1993 and has provided a useful mechanism for handling offenses deemed as infractions and is well-suited to certain types of violations of emergency period rules that are designated infractions by the governor or mayor under the state's emergency management laws.
(c) The legislature further finds that the illegal use of fireworks poses a serious public health and safety hazard. Due to the high number of fireworks being set off throughout the State, an expeditious adjudication system for fireworks infractions, such as the system for processing traffic infractions, will allow the judiciary to expediently process violations of the fireworks control law. This system will allow the judiciary to reserve resources for cases that require more resources. [L 1993, c 214, pt of §2; am L 2021, c 185, §4; am L 2025, c 243, §18]