Hawaii Island police are reminding motorists about the requirement to properly register motor vehicle-drawn trailers designed for carrying livestock, property, such as trash or small equipment, or persons, such as parade floats, on public roadways.
According to Hawaii Revised Statutes 286-47.2, all trailers with the exception of “Special Mobile Equipment” must be inspected and registered with the County Department of Finance. Special Mobile Equipment is defined by Hawaii County Code 24-3(43).
“Special mobile equipment” means every vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and only incidentally operated or moved over a highway, including but not limited to: ditch digging apparatus, well boring apparatus and road construction and maintenance machinery such as asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, tractors other than truck tractors, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, road rollers, scarifiers, earth moving carry-alls and scrapers, power shovels and drag lines, and self-propelled cranes and earth moving equipment. The term does not include house trailers, dump trucks, truck mounted transit mixers, cranes or shovels, or other vehicles designed for the transportation of persons or property to which machinery has been attached.
For the protection of the public, police are continuing enforcement efforts regarding unsafe vehicles, including vehicles and trailers with no license plates, defective or lack of illuminated vehicle and trailer lights, expired or lack of safety and weight tax stickers, tinted window violations, and oversized tires. Violators are subject to fines that can be more than $70.