Bill Text: HI HR95 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii House Resolution 95 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Pedestrian Flag Safety Program

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-03-22 - (H) Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting no and Bertram, Carroll, M. Lee, Nishimoto excused. [HR95 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-HR95-Introduced.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	95
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

requesting the state department of transportation and the department of transportation services of the city and county of honolulu to implement a pedestrian flag safety program.

WHEREAS, in 2009, sixteen pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles state-wide; and

WHEREAS, in June 2005, Hudson Falls became the first community in the State of New York to implement a pedestrian safety program using flags at crosswalks to make crossing pedestrians more noticeable to motorists at busy thoroughfares; and

WHEREAS, under this program, flag-holding containers with Day-Glo flags are installed on both sides of the street at crosswalks, and pedestrians wishing to cross the street can retrieve a flag and wave it to gain motorist's attention when crossing the street; and

WHEREAS, on January 12, 2010, Hideno Matsumoto, an 81-year old Nuuanu resident, was fatally injured when she was struck by a sport utility vehicle while trying to cross the Pali Highway; and

WHEREAS, the driver of the sport utility vehicle told police investigators that she simply didn't see Matsumoto; and

WHEREAS, four days later, Virginia Kawauchi, a Kailua resident, set out approximately thirty homemade flags, each inscribed with the phrase "In loving memory of Hideno Matsumoto", on each side of three crosswalks along the Pali Highway; and

WHEREAS, the flags are held in bins that invite pedestrians to take a flag across the street for increased safety, to wave the flag to alert drivers, and to place the flag in the bin across the street for the next pedestrian; and

WHEREAS, when asked about her efforts, Kawauchi stated that she felt if the flags saved one life, then it will have been worth it; and

WHEREAS, the pedestrian flag approach, now used in thirteen states, has greatly increased motorists' compliance in giving pedestrians the right of way at crosswalks; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2010, that the Department of Transportation, with the assistance of the Department of Transportation Services of the City and County of Honolulu, is requested to implement a pedestrian flag safety program; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the pedestrian flag safety program shall be designed to provide flags to pedestrians at designated crosswalks determined by the Department of Transportation to be particularly dangerous to crossing pedestrians; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to report to the Legislature on the pedestrian flag safety program no later than twenty day prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2012; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Transportation and the Director of the Department of Transportation Services of the City and County of Honolulu.