Complaints were raised in the Senate yesterday about incomplete bills being submitted by the administration to the Fono for review.
Senator Magalei Logovii said that some of the bills which the Governor has sent to the Fono are missing key information and appear to be hurriedly drafted. He said it appears that the administration wants the Fono to complete their work with the proposed legislation.
Senate President Tuaolo Manaia Fruean responded that there’s a simple solution. He recommended that the Senate reject any incomplete bill and send it back to the administration. He declared, “this is not a chamber for incomplete bills.”
Senator Faiivae Alex Godinet said this is the reason why his Public Safety Committee is withdrawing the bill that would restrict the use of cell phones while driving. He said the bill was just two pages and doesn’t provide a penalty for violators. The Attorney General has said the Fono can come up with a penalty if it wishes.
During a hearing on the bill, AG Fainuulelei Alailima Utu explained that the main aim of the bill was for public safety, pointing out that there have been accidents here and the United States due to the use of cell phones while driving. He said the attention of the driver is not on operating the vehicle when they are using their cell phones to talk, text or use social media.
He said a violation of this law would be a traffic infraction for which penalties are provided under statute. At the same time, he said if the senators desire they can include a penalty specifically for a violation of the cell phone offense in the proposed law.
The Commissioner of Public Safety Lefiti Falelauli’i Pese supports the bill. He said a few years ago a child was killed when he was struck by a vehicle near Matafao and police investigations showed that the driver was reaching for his cell phone. In a more recent accident in Nu’uuli, the use of a cell phone was also blamed for a vehicle driving directly into a home killing a child.
Senator Faiivae, Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, wanted to know if there had been a study on the number of accidents caused by cell phones here. He said, “We have a 25 miles per hour speed limit and the most glaring weakness of the bill in his view was that the bill didn’t provide a penalty.”
His views were echoed by several senators and the consensus was the bill needed more work.
The Senate voted yesterday not to continue review of the bill, which was on the calendar for second reading.
Senate President Tuaolo said if senators feel administration bills are incomplete they should reject the bills and return them.
