§291A-1  Enactment of compact.  TheNonresident Violator Compact is hereby enacted into law and entered into withall other jurisdictions legally joining herein in the form substantially asfollows:

 

NONRESIDENTVIOLATOR COMPACT

 

ARTICLE I. FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY

 

(a)  The party states find that:

(1)  Under present procedures, a nonresident motoristwho is arrested in a state other than the nonresident's home state must eitherpost collateral or bond to secure appearance for trial at some later date, or,if unable to post such collateral or bond, the nonresident is taken intocustody until collateral or bond is posted or taken directly to court forarraignment to be held.  The purpose of this requirement is to obviate thedifficulty of ensuring compliance with the terms of a traffic citation by thenonresident who, if permitted to continue on the nonresident's way afterreceiving such citation, could return to the nonresident's home state anddisregard with impunity the nonresident's duty under the terms of the citation.

(2)  A motorist receiving a traffic citation in themotorist's home state is permitted, except for certain violations, to acceptthe citation from the officer at the scene of the violation and to immediatelycontinue on the motorist's way after being instructed to comply with the termsof the citation.

(3)  The practice described in paragraph (1) causesunnecessary inconvenience and, at times, causes a hardship for the motorist whois unable at the time to post collateral, furnish a bond, stand trial, or paythe fine and thus is compelled to remain in custody until some arrangement canbe made.

(4)  The arrest of a nonresident motorist for a motorvehicle violation is presently consuming an undue amount of law enforcementtime.

(b)  It is the policy of each of the partystates to:

(1)  Promote compliance with the laws, ordinances, andadministrative rules relating to the operation of motor vehicles by theiroperators in each of the jurisdictions where such operators drive motor vehicles.

(2)  Make the reciprocal recognition of the right ofmotorists of the party states to accept a citation without delay in all trafficviolation cases in which such procedure is permitted whether the motorist is aresident or a nonresident of the state in which the arrest was made.

(3)  Maximize effective utilization of law enforcementpersonnel and assist the court systems in the efficient disposition of trafficviolations.

(4)  Consider an operator who ignores or refuses acitation from a party state to be an unfit or irresponsible person to hold alicense to drive.

 

ARTICLE II. DEFINITIONS

 

As used in this compact:

(a)  "Citation" means any citation,summons, ticket, or other document issued by a police officer for violation ofa traffic law, ordinance, rule, or regulation which requires the motorist torespond.

(b)  "Collateral" means any bond,cash, or other security deposited to secure an appearance for trial followingthe issuance by an arresting officer of a citation for a traffic violation.

(c)  "Compact administrator" meansthe administrative director of the courts or designee.

(d)  "Driver's license" means anylicense to operate a motor vehicle issued under the laws of the home state.

(e)  "Home state" means the statethat has issued and has the power to suspend or revoke the use of the licenseor permit to operate a motor vehicle.

(f)  "Issuing state" means the statein which the traffic citation was issued to the motorist.

(g)  "Licensing authority" means theadministrative director of the courts or designee.

(h)  "Motorist" means the driver of amotor vehicle operating in a party state other than the home state.

(i)  "Nonresident" means a driver whoholds a license issued by a party state other than the state in which thecitation was issued.

(j)  "Personal recognizance" means asigned agreement by a nonresident that the nonresident will comply with theterms of the citation issued to the nonresident.

(k)  "State" means a state,territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or theCommonwealth of Puerto Rico, Provinces of Canada, or other countries.

 

ARTICLE III. PROCEDURE FOR ISSUING STATE

 

(a)  An officer making an arrest or citing anonresident for a traffic violation shall issue a citation as appropriate toall motorists who are residents of the party states and shall not, subject tothe exceptions noted in subsection (b) of this Article, require such motoristto post collateral or bond to secure appearance for trial, but may accept suchmotorist's personal recognizance that the motorist will comply with the termsof the citation.

(b)  No motorist shall be entitled to receive acitation under the terms of subsection (a) of this Article, nor shall anypolice officer issue such citation under the same terms, in the event theoffense for which the citation is issued shall be one of the following:

(1)  An offense for which the issuance of a citationin lieu of a hearing or the posting of collateral, bail, or bond is prohibitedby law or court policy; or

(2)  An offense, for which the revocation of themotorist's license would be required upon conviction or forfeiture ofcollateral.

(c)  Upon the failure of any nonresident tocomply with the terms of a traffic citation, the arresting officer or otherappropriate official may obtain a warrant for arrest or summons for appearancein court and shall report the failure to the licensing authority of the statein which the arrest was made or the citation for a traffic violation wasissued.  If the State of Hawaii is the issuing state, the arresting officer orother appropriate official shall report this failure to the compactadministrator.  The report shall clearly identify the person arrested or cited;describe the violation, specifying the section of the traffic law, ordinance,rule, or regulation violated; indicate the location of the offense; anddescribe the vehicle, and its license number.  The report shall be signed bythe arresting officer or other appropriate official.

 

ARTICLE IV. PROCEDURE FOR HOME STATE

 

(a)  Upon receipt of the report as described inArticle III, the licensing authority of the state in which the arrest was madeor a citation for a traffic violation was issued shall transmit an officialcopy of the record of the report to the licensing authority of the home state. If the State of Hawaii is the home state, the licensing authority of the statein which the arrest was made or a citation for a traffic violation was issuedshall transmit an official copy of the record of the report to the compactadministrator.  If the State of Hawaii is the issuing state, the compactadministrator shall transmit an official copy of the record of the report tothe licensing authority of the home state.

(b)  Upon receipt of a certification ofnoncompliance from the state in which the arrest was made or a citation for atraffic violation was issued, the licensing authority of the home state shallnotify the motorist and immediately initiate license suspension proceedingsagainst such motorist.  The order of suspension shall indicate the reason forthe order and shall notify the motorist that the motorist's license shallremain suspended until satisfactory evidence has been furnished to theauthority issuing such order of compliance with the terms of the citation.

(c)  A copy of any suspension order issuedunder this Article shall be furnished to the licensing authority of the statein which the arrest was made or a citation for a traffic violation was issued. If the State of Hawaii is the issuing state, a copy of any suspension orderissued under this Article shall be furnished to the compact administrator.

(d)  If the laws of a home state do not providefor offenses or violations denominated or described in precisely the wordsemployed in the state from which a certification of noncompliance is received,the home state shall construe the denomination and descriptions appearing inthe laws of such state as being applicable to and identifying those offenses orviolations of a substantially similar nature.

 

ARTICLE V. APPLICABILITY OF OTHER LAWS

 

Except as expressly required by provisions ofthis compact, nothing contained herein shall be construed to affect the rightof any party state to apply any of its other laws relating to the licenses todrive to any person or circumstance, nor to invalidate or prevent any driverlicense agreement or other cooperative arrangement between a party state and anonparty state.

 

ARTICLE VI. COMPACT ADMINISTRATOR AND

INTERCHANGEOF INFORMATION

 

(a)  The motor vehicle administrator of eachparty state shall be the administrator of this compact for their state.  Forthe State of Hawaii, the administrative director of the courts or designeeshall be the administrator of this compact.  The administrators, actingjointly, shall have the power to formulate all necessary and proper proceduresfor the exchange of information under this compact.

(b)  The administrator of each party stateshall furnish to the administrator of each other party state any information ordocuments reasonably necessary to facilitate the administration of thiscompact.

 

ARTICLE VII. ENTRY INTO FORCE AND WITHDRAWAL

 

(a)  This compact shall enter into force andbecome effective as to any state when it has enacted the same into law.

(b)  Any party state may withdraw from thiscompact by enacting a statute repealing the same, but no such withdrawal shalltake effect until six months after the executive head of the withdrawing statehas given notice of the withdrawal to the executive heads of all other party states. No withdrawal shall affect the validity or applicability by the licensingauthorities of states remaining party to the compact of any report ofconviction prior to the withdrawal.

 

ARTICLEVIII.  EXCEPTIONS

 

The provisions of this compact shall not applyto parking violations, highway weight limit violations, and violations of lawgoverning the transportation of hazardous materials.

 

ARTICLE IX. CONSTRUCTION AND SEVERABILITY

 

This compact shall be liberally construed so asto effectuate the purposes thereof.  The provisions of this compact shall beseverable and if any phrase, clause, sentence, or provision of this compact isdeclared to be contrary to the constitution of any party state or of the UnitedStates or the applicability thereof to any government, agency, person, orcircumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this compact andthe applicability thereof to any government, agency, person, or circumstanceshall not be affected thereby.  If this compact shall be held contrary to theconstitution of any state party thereto, the compact shall remain in full forceand effect as to the remaining states and in full force and effect as to thestate affected as to all severable matters. [L 1993, c 135, §1; gen ch 1993; amL 1995, c 64, §§1 to 3]