A deadly car crash this past weekend has resulted in the arrest of a Washington visitor on suspicion of negligent homicide, negligent injury, reckless driving and more. It further points to the need for greater attention to safety among visitors and all island drivers.
The Kilauea crash on Kauai killed one of the occupants in the visitor’s car and resulted in multiple injuries. It occurred when the driver attempted a left turn and was struck by an oncoming truck. Speeding and alcohol appear unrelated to the crash.
Driving in Hawaii – Beat of Hawaii’s Top 10
1. Stay attentive in spite of the beautiful scenery. Avoid U-Turns on our highways, becoming distracted by the beauty or sudden stops for photo opportunities. Our roads may seem sleepy compared with the US mainland, but they bring equal deadly dangers.
2. Slow down, go with the flow, stay safe and keep your vacation money in your pocket. Speeding is also a significant problem here, and a major source of accidents in Hawaii. Speed detection is in wide-spread use and our tickets can be very expensive.
3. Don’t honk. We use car horns to say hello to people and not to complain. Let people in; it’s our way.
4. Rain creates road hazards. Reduce your speed.
5. Hawaii weather and flood advisories are helpful at any time of year. NOAA is the place to go. Just enter the city or zip code. Driving during flooding in Hawaii is something that residents avoid and visitors should as well.
6. Avoid rush-hour traffic in Honolulu for safety and peace of mind between 6am-8:30am and 3:30pm-6pm. Spend your spend your time sitting on the beach instead of in traffic. Plan routing before you drive. Remember that it just takes longer to drive between points on our island roads.
7. Cross the highway at cross walks. Please be mindful of pedestrians.
8. Road shoulders in Hawaii are often more dangerous than they appear and should be avoided whenever possible. Skip getting towed or wrecking your car.
9. “Makai” (towards the ocean) and “mauka” (towards the mountain) are important distinctions in Hawaii driving directions. We generally use these terms together with landmarks and mile posts when providing directions rather than street and highway names or numbers.
10. Don’t drink and drive. Wear seat belts. We hope to see you back in Hawaii again and soon!
i witnessed and attended to the injured on that crash. extremely horrible accident for all involved, even the other local driver. Now they arrest the washington man after he has killed his best friend and forever maimed his wife… unreal! there had better be a rationale for this…all involved are forever horrendously changed with this split second wrong decision to do a uturn on the highway…our county has the responsibility to announce why they arrest someone in this aspect while so many ice addicts continue to be allowed back into our neighborhoods. Not embellishing, its the truth. we all know. I’m ex fire fighter/emt,i’ve seen major accidents yet this one deeply bothers me…
It’s sad you have to post these common sense statements…but you know what they say…you can’t legislate common sense!
Mahalo Ed!
The Garden Island did not make it clear at all why the driver was arrested. Do you have any additional info ? It seems that many people make mistakes driving but aren’t arrested so I am wondering what is different in this case. One of his friends is dead and the others injured which seem quite a punishment already.
Hi Alan,
No further information at this time, but perhaps one clue is a mention of inattentive driving. We’ll update as soon as we can.
Aloha.