Posted on: Friday, February 22, 2002

Van cams return tomorrow

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

The state's traffic cameras could be back on O'ahu's highways as early as tomorrow, according to Transportation Director Brian Minaai.

State officials are very close to approving a new citation form that successfully addresses legal challenges raised in court this week, Minaai said last night. Once the form is approved by state attorneys, the speed camera vans will roll again quickly.

"If all goes well, we hope to have them out in time to catch the Saturday night speeders," he said.

Minaai's announcement came at the end of day of legal maneuvering that closed one gaping loophole leading to the dismissal of more than a hundred tickets Tuesday. That loophole also threatened to jeopardize thousands more citations issued during the seven-week-old program.

Another loophole developed yesterday that resulted in the dismissal of 33 citations based on an argument that even defense attorneys later admitted was wrong.

By day's end, both loopholes that attorneys had found to challenge the traffic camera tickets appeared to be closed for future use.

"Tomorrow's another day, maybe another argument," said attorney Michael Kam.

The first loophole became evident Tuesday when District Court Judges Leslie Hayashi and Russel Nagata threw out more than 100 contested citations. The judges found the citations invalid because the forms lacked a required statement about the certification of the program's laser operators.

Hayashi appeared to shut that loophole yesterday. She told attorneys that citations would no longer be dismissed because of the lack of certification. That ruling came after Minaai submitted a court affidavit asserting that all the laser operators were certified to run the equipment.

The affidavit, in effect, served as an adequate amendment to the thousands of citations already issued, making them valid once again, Hayashi ruled.

Defense attorneys were disappointed but clearly ready to move on to new arguments. "Like a chess game: move, countermove," Kam said.

The second loophole, brought to Hayashi's attention yesterday, dealt with arguments by Kam and attorney Pat McPherson who said the citations violated a section of the law that appeared to require the cameras to be within 150 feet of the speeding auto at the time of the violation.

Hayashi called McPherson to the bench to examine his law books, agreed with him and promptly began dismissing the citations of everyone who could show the cameras were more than 150 feet away. All 33 in court yesterday had citations with entries clearly showing the distance from camera to car to be more than 150 feet.

The trouble, however, was that the attorneys were relying on an outdated version of the legislative act authorizing the use of the camera.

The law, as printed in "Session Laws of Hawaii, Twentieth State Legislature," originally contained a requirement that "an indication of the speed of the motor vehicle is displayed within one hundred fifty feet" of the speed camera. However, the line is contained within brackets, an indication that it was deleted from the law in 2000.

"I was wrong and I later apologized to the judge," Kam said. "There was no intent to deceive anyone."

Even so, the rulings were good enough for 33 people who had their citations dismissed before Kam's error was discovered. Those citations cannot be reinstated, attorneys said.

Dozens more people failed to appear in court yesterday for scheduled hearings and had default judgments issued against them.

"What a waste of government time and money," said plumber Dean Harada, whose ticket said he was doing 44 mph in a 35-mph zone near the Wilson Tunnel. The citation was thrown out because the camera was 155 feet away . "They should have had everything done right in the first place before they took this thing out to the streets."

Randal Freitas of Kailua never got to argue he wasn't driving the car that the state said was doing 52 mph in a 45-mph zone. He picked up on what the attorneys and others were saying and told the judge the camera was 233 feet from his car. Case dismissed.

"I was grateful for the free advice the attorneys offered to everyone in the court," said Freitas, who like most of the others said he was more worried about his insurance premiums rising than the cost of the ticket alone. "Thank you. Thank you."

Dozens more hearings for those who received citations in early January were scheduled for District Court this afternoon.

Minaai said the legislative and legal ups-and-downs of the program all were expected because the program is a demonstration project.

"It's in the nature of these things to go through a lot of challenges and hurdles," he said. "It's all part of the learning experience.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5460.