We're glad to see that the bill allowing police officers to arrest any person speeding in excess of 20 mph is running out of gas in the legislature. Existing traffic laws should be enforced more strictly before adding additional laws.
Arrest is a very serious punishment for speeding.
The bill, if passed, would also penalize good drivers who are forced to speed because of other speeding drivers or emergency conditions. We agree with the University of Hawai'i students quoted in this issue who point that a higher excess speed in the bill would more effectively deter the most dangerous drivers. Twenty mph is too small a margin to accurately separate notoriously dangerous drivers from a normally good driver who speeds once. On one hand, we should be able to monitor our own driving without the threat of being arrested for speeding. On the other, many of us have been too close to violence stemming from reckless drivers and stupidity behind steering wheels.