(a) Officers and employees of the Honolulu police department and department of customer services are authorized to remove vehicles or cause them to be removed from a street, highway, or pedestrian mall to a storage area or other place of safety under any of the following circumstances:
(1) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge or elevated structure, viaduct, causeway, or left unattended in any tube or tunnel, where such vehicle constitutes an obstruction to traffic;
(2) When any vehicle upon a highway is so disabled as to constitute an obstruction to traffic and the person or persons in charge of the vehicle request the removal of the vehicle or are by reason of physical injury incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for the vehicle’s custody or removal;
(3) When any vehicle is left unattended upon a street and is parked illegally so as to constitute a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic;
(4) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in a tow zone during the time of restricted parking during the morning peak traffic hours designated by official signs specifying the hours of restricted parking every day, except Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, on the streets or portions thereof described in Schedule XVII;*
(5) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in a tow zone during the time of restricted parking during the afternoon peak traffic hours designated by official signs specifying the hours of restricted parking every day, except Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, on the streets or portions thereof described in Schedule XVIII;*
(6) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in a tow zone during the time of restricted parking during the morning or afternoon peak traffic hours, or both, as designated by official signs specifying the hours of restricted parking every day, except Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, on the streets or portions thereof described in Schedule XIX;*
(7) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in a tow zone at all hours of any day on the streets or portions thereof described in Schedule XX;*
(8) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in a tow zone during the time of restricted parking designated by official signs specifying those times of restricted parking on the streets or portions thereof described in Schedule XXI;*
(9) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked upon a street and is parked in front of a public or private driveway so as to constitute an obstruction to vehicular traffic using or attempting to use the driveway for purposes of egress or ingress;
(10) When any vehicle is left unattended on a street, or portion thereof, so as to interfere with or impede any one or more of the following: construction, demolition, repair, or maintenance work being done on, adjacent to, above, or below the street; provided that a permit has been issued for the work by the director of transportation services, and adequate regulatory signs are posted designating the time of the prohibition;
(11) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any street within 10 feet of a fire hydrant;
(12) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any street within 4 feet of either side of a public or private driveway;
(13) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in a crosswalk, or within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection, or within 20 feet upon the approach to any midblock crosswalk;
(14) When any vehicle is left unattended at any time on the roadway portion of any freeway; or when any vehicle, except an authorized emergency vehicle or highway maintenance or construction equipment, is left unattended on the median, shoulder, or any other portion, other than the roadway portion, of any freeway for more than four hours;
(15) When any bus, truck, truck-trailer, trailer, van, house trailer, or any vehicle used for commercial purposes whose gross vehicle weight is 10,000 pounds or more, except vehicles of the public utilities and construction equipment while engaged in repair or construction work, or vehicles actually loading or unloading goods, wares or merchandise, is parked on any public street for more than four consecutive hours;
(16) When any vehicle is left unattended in a transit bus or an express bus lane;
(17) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bicycle lane or bicycle path;
(18) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in violation of the pedestrian mall provisions of Article 25;
(19) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked in an official bus stop as described in Schedule XXV;*
(20) When any vehicle is parked, stopped or left standing in violation of § 15-14.1(a)(21) to (a)(26);
(21) When any vehicle is left unattended or parked on any public street, road, or highway, and the vehicle has any one or more of the following:
(A) No valid vehicle registration emblem or an expired vehicle registration emblem;
(B) No valid sticker affixed certifying a certificate of inspection as required in HRS § 286-26 or an expired certificate of inspection sticker; or
(C) No valid license plates.
For the purposes of this subdivision: “public street, road, or highway” includes the entire width, including any berm or shoulder, of every road, alley, street, way, lane, trail, highway, bikeway, or bridge when any part thereof is open for use by the public;
(22) When a vehicle is parked in a restrictive parking zone in violation of Article 30 of this chapter;
(23) When a vehicle is parked in a reserved car-sharing on-street parking stall without a valid and current reserved car-sharing on-street parking stall sticker in accordance with § 15-28.1(g);
(24) When a vehicle is parked in a loading zone or an officially designated bus stop without a valid and current decal or other approved device permitting parking in loading zones and official bus stops in accordance with § 15-15.5;
(25) When a shared micromobility vehicle is parked in a manner in violation of any provision of § 15-31.5; and
(26) When any vehicle, including a trailer, is left unattended on a public street or highway for more than 24 hours.
(b) Whenever an officer or employee of the department of customer services removes a vehicle or causes a vehicle to be removed from a street or other place as authorized in this section, and the officer or employee knows or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle or otherwise the name and address of the owner thereof, such officer or employee shall immediately notify or cause notice to be given to the police department dispatch office of the fact of such removal, of the reasons therefor, and of the place to which the vehicle has been moved.
(c) Whenever an officer or employee of the department of customer services removes a vehicle or causes a vehicle to be removed from a street or other place as authorized in this section and does not know and is not able to ascertain the name of the owner as provided in subsection (b), and in the event the vehicle is not returned to the owner within a period of three days, then and in that event, the officer or employee shall immediately send or cause to be sent a written report of such removal by mail to the director of customer services whose duty it is to register motor vehicles. The report shall include a complete description of the vehicle, the date and time the vehicle was removed, and the place from which it was removed, the reasons for its removal, and the name of the garage or other place where the vehicle is stored.
(d) The registered owner of a vehicle removed and stored as authorized in this section shall be liable for all reasonable expenses incurred by the city for such removal and storage.
Editor’s note:
* See listing of schedules at the end of this chapter.