Police say they’re cracking down on trucks with oversized tires, trucks that are illegally lifted, and vehicles with illegal tinting on the windows and windshields.
“This is a safety issue,” said Officer Aaron Yamanaka of the Kona Community Policing Section, adding police “will be citing operators” of vehicles that fall outside the law’s parameters.
According to the Hawaii County Code, all vehicles on public roads must have fenders, covers, flaps or splash aprons covering their tires. A vehicle with oversized tires won’t qualify for a safety inspection if the tire threads are visible outside the fenders.
The intent of the law is to minimize the splashing of mud, rocks and harmful debris onto the path of other cars. Such splashing can cause damage and visibility problems for other motorists.
“Throwing rocks and other debris off the road onto people’s windshields” presents a danger on the road, according to Kona Community Policing Officer Dwayne Sluss.
“Basically, when you start lifting your vehicle up, you open up your tires to all the rocks and road grime and whatnot,” he said. “You get rain and mud and all that jazz, and the tires are picking it up and slinging them.”
A driver can be fined from $57 to $72 or more for operating a vehicle with oversized tires that aren’t covered by the fender or fender flares. A police officer also has the authority to declare the vehicle unsafe. In that case, the vehicle could be towed away.
According to Hawaii Police Department statistics, officers issued 251 citations in 2020 for vehicles that didn’t have required mud or spray guards. In 2021, when there were no novel coronavirus-related pandemic lockdowns and more vehicles on the road, officers wrote 586 tickets for the offense.
While lifted vehicles aren’t inherently illegal, some drivers have their vehicles lifted beyond legal limits for the gross vehicle weight, as measured from the ground-level surface to the highest point on the bottom of the bumper.
The maximum allowable heights are: passenger vehicles, 22 inches; trucks 4,500 pounds and under, 29 inches; 4,501 to 7,500 pounds, 33 inches; and 7,501 to 10,000 pounds, 35 inches. Those heights apply to both front and rear bumpers. The fine for regulatory equipment infractions is $57.
Police statistics show that officers wrote 12 citations in 2020 and 13 in 2021 for bumpers too high from the ground for the vehicle’s gross weight rating.
“Once you lift the vehicle, your center of gravity is changed. Also, the stability of the vehicle” is affected, according to Sluss.
Sluss said the reasons many drivers have their trucks lifted are purely cosmetic.
“I go hunting. I grew up in a hunting family. I go off-roading,” he said. “The only reason you lift a truck or you put bigger tires on is to get clearance from rocks, if you’re off road, four-wheeling. But when you’re lifting the body three inches or more above the frame, basically you’re exposing your axles to damage from rocks.
“For all intents and purposes, it’s all show.”
Police also are warning the public about dark tinting on vehicle windows.
For a variety of safety and enforcement reasons, police and other emergency responders must be able to see the interior of vehicles. The fine for excessive tinting is $287. The installer of the illegal tint job may be fined $537.
All tint shops and installers in the state are monitored and know what the legal amount of tinting is permissible for different vehicles, according to police.
Sluss said a reputable tint shop “will inform you of the legalities of it, that you can’t go above a certain percentage in Hawaii.”
For sedans, sport-utility vehicles and vans, nonreflective tint is allowed on the top four inches of the windshield. For sedans, front side windows, back side windows and rear windows must allow more than 35% of the outside light in. For SUVs and vans, front side windows must allow more than 35% of light in. For back side windows and rear windows, any darkness of tint can be used.
Tint installers must issue a certificate of compliance to the customer, which the vehicle’s registered owner must store in the vehicle at all times.
In 2020, Big Island officers cited 110 drivers for illegally tinted windows, while officers wrote fewer citations, 101, in 2021.
The Tribune-Herald requested the number of tint shops cited for applying illegal tint to vehicles, but that number, if it exists, wasn’t provided by police.
“To prove that somebody’s applying it, you’d have to set up a sting operation and take a vehicle in,” said Sluss, who noted illegal tint jobs are likely applied by the car owners or drivers themselves.
For further information about laws pertaining to illegal tinting or oversized tires, please contact Yamanaka at (808) 326-4646, extension 258.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.