Committee Chairman Joe Souki wants to scrap the existing program, replacing it with one that would require a citation that identifies the driver of the auto, not just the owner, and ban insurance companies from using camera citations as a basis for increasing premiums.

It also would stipulate that the private company operating the system be paid a flat fee, rather than on the per-ticket basis now in effect.

Before the vote was taken to pass the bill on to the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Rath, R-6th (N. Kona, S. Kohala), today questioned the validity of the program.

"Whatever this program is supposed to demonstrate, it is not doing a very good job of it," he said. "It would have been a lot easier and a lot cheaper just to add a bunch of cops."

Transportation department director Brian Minaai told the committee that 54 percent of the 3,620 speeding tickets issued in January were for vehicles traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit.

"A lot of people just want to scrap traffic cameras — period," Souki, D-8th (Waiehu, Ma'alaea, Napili) said yesterday. "But I have to go back to 1998, when excessive speeding was a top priority and the community demanded that we do something about the extreme danger it presented. I think we have a moral obligation to respect that concern as well."