LIHU‘E — Enforcement of drunk-driving, seat-belt and child-safety-seat laws has saved lives, Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry said at this month’s Kaua‘i County Police Commission meeting at the Historic County Building. Officers have made 176 drunk-driving arrests in the first
LIHU‘E — Enforcement of drunk-driving, seat-belt and child-safety-seat laws has saved lives, Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry said at this month’s Kaua‘i County Police Commission meeting at the Historic County Building.
Officers have made 176 drunk-driving arrests in the first eight months of this year, Perry said. If just 1 percent of those people had not been arrested and they instead killed someone on Kaua‘i’s roads, the chief said that’s probably two lives saved through DUI enforcement.
Perry said KPD officers will step up enforcement of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant, or OVUII, over the upcoming holidays.
KPD observation and enforcement efforts indicate that over 98 percent of all vehicle occupants were buckled up during the recent Click It Or Ticket campaign.
The 98.3 percent compliance rate for Kaua‘i was bested only by Maui’s 98.4 percent, Perry said.
A statewide total of nearly 98 percent was “great,” said Perry, attributing that high rate to public understanding of the importance of buckling up.
During National Child Passenger Safety Week, KPD officers issued 24 citations and 77 warnings at public elementaries before and after school, according to a county press release.
Police departments in all four Hawai‘i counties partnered with the state departments of Transportation and Education to conduct spot checks last week on the use of child safety seats.
“We wanted to ensure that parents and caregivers are fully aware of their responsibility to safely restrain children that are riding in their vehicles,” said Mark Scribner, acting captain of the KPD Patrol Services Bureau.
He said more than 700 children between the ages of 4 and 7 are involved in major car crashes in Hawai‘i annually.
“Statistics show that children who are not restrained while riding in a vehicle are at least 50 percent more at risk for injury than those in child safety or booster seats,” Scribner said.
The law relating to child passenger restraints states that no person operating a motor vehicle on a public highway shall transport a child under 8 years old except under the following circumstances:
∫ If the child is under 4 years old, the person operating the motor vehicle shall ensure that the child is properly restrained in a child passenger restraint system that meets federal motor vehicle safety standards at the time of its manufacture; or
∫ If the child is age 4 or older but less than 8 years old, the person operating the motor vehicle shall ensure the child is properly restrained in a child safety seat or booster seat that meets federal motor vehicle safety standards at the time of its manufacture; except as provided in paragraph (3); and
∫ If the child is age 4 or older but less than 8 years old, the person operating the motor vehicle shall be exempt from properly restraining the child in a child safety seat or booster seat that meets federal motor vehicle safety standards at the time of manufacture if the child is restrained by a seat belt assembly and is:
∫ Over 4 feet 9 inches tall; or
∫ Over 40 pounds and traveling in a motor vehicle equipped only with lap belts, without shoulder straps, in the back seat.
Those who violate the child passenger restraint law for the first time are subject to a fine of up to $100 and may be required by the court to attend a child passenger restraint system safety class. They must also pay a $50 driver education assessment, $10 surcharge towards the neurotrauma special fund and up to a $10 surcharge towards the trauma system special fund if ordered by the court.
For more information, call the KPD Traffic Safety Unit at 241-1612.
•Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
