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HB1479
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
H.B. NO.
1479
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
STATE OF HAWAII
A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating
to audible vehicle reverse warning systems
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BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
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SECTION 1.
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The
legislature finds that in order to reduce urban noise pollution caused by
reversing alarms of commercial and construction vehicles and to ensure safer
reversing, it is necessary to transition to newer technology for audible
reverse warning systems.
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Commonly
referred to as back-up beepers, most audible reverse warning systems use a
tonal sound over a single frequency that humans hear as "beep-beep-beep".
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Broadband alarms, on the other hand, use a
pulsed acoustic signal that comprises a range of frequencies producing a noise
that is heard as "pshh-pshh-pshh".
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Broadband alarms are sometimes called
quackers, croakers, and wooshers.
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The legislature further finds that the
federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), requires the use
of reversing alarms on construction vehicles to protect people from accidental
injury and death, or alternatively the use of an observer to signal to the
vehicle driver when it is safe to reverse.
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If using a reversing alarm, it must be "audible above the
surrounding noise level".
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For
specific earthmoving or compacting equipment, such as a bulldozer or grader,
the alarm must be "distinguishable from the surrounding noise level".
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Title 29 Code of Federal Regulations sections
1926.601(b)(4) and 1926.602(a)(9).
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Significantly, the legislature notes that
OSHA regulations do not specify a particular type or sound of alarm, which
allows for flexibility.
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In several OSHA
interpretation letters, the agency reaffirmed that its regulations do not
specify that a particular reversing alarm be used or that the sound be of the
single-tone type.
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Per OSHA, any
alternatives to a conventional back-up alarm may be used so long as they
"provide adequate warning to workers in the path of the vehicle, and to
workers walking towards the path of the vehicle in time to avoid contact".
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Various reports and studies have explored
the deficiencies of single-tone back-up beepers, including a 2017 study titled
"Perceptions of Key Stakeholders Regarding the Utilization of Locatable
Sound for the Prevention of Occupational Pedestrian Injuries and
Fatalities".
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This study compared
the use of broadband sound reversing alarms to traditional tonal sound alarms
across a range of criteria--audibility, propagation, frequency content, and
sound pressure maps--and concluded that broadband sounds for reversing alarms
are nearly two-thirds more effective than their tonal equivalents.
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The broadband sound is both better in
preventing workplace fatalities and reducing noise pollution in the surrounding
area due to the broadband sound system that allows for a variety of sounds and
the focusing of the alarm's sound.
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A New
York State Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation investigation determined
that a traditional tonal back-up beeper had been inefficient in alerting the
deceased worker to a reversing vehicle, stating, "Often people who work
regularly near back-up beepers become accustomed to their sound and become
desensitized to them as warning signals".
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The purpose of this Act is to
protect the State's residents from disruptive noise pollution and utilize safer
vehicular reversing practices by requiring the use of broadband reversing
alarms instead of tonal alarms, for certain vehicles, by January 1, 2028.
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SECTION 2.
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Chapter 291, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section
to part II to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
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�291-
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Audible
reverse warning systems.
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No state or county-owned vehicle purchased on
or after January 1, 2028, shall use an audible reverse warning system that
emits a warning sound other than one using broadband technology.
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For
the purposes of this section, "vehicle" includes earthmoving and
compacting equipment such as scrapers, loaders, crawler or wheel tractors,
bulldozers, off-highway trucks, graders, agricultural and industrial tractors,
and similar equipment.
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SECTION 3.
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New statutory material is underscored.
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SECTION 4.
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This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
INTRODUCED BY:
_____________________________
Report Title:
Audible Reverse Warning Systems; Broadband Sound
Description:
Requires the use of current audible reverse warning
systems (back-up beepers) on state and county-owned vehicles purchased on or
after 1/1/2028, with more effective broadband reversing alarms by 1/1/2028.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.