• Another highway death Another highway death The State of Hawai‘i is finally being proactive about the dangers of driving along the stretch of Kuhio Highway fronting the entrance to the Wailua Golf Course. Interactive speed signs are now positioned
• Another highway death
Another highway death
The State of Hawai‘i is finally being proactive about the dangers of driving along the stretch of Kuhio Highway fronting the entrance to the Wailua Golf Course.
Interactive speed signs are now positioned on the north end and south side of the highway, several hundred yards back from the site of the two fatal traffic accidents that occurred there this month. The signs display in big yellow numerals the speed you are traveling. This makes you aware that you might be facing a speeding ticket if you are exceeding the posted 50 miles per hour speed limit, and attempts to make you slow down.
The slow down part is apparently the thrust of the decision to post the signs.
Why the accidents are happening in this area may well have something to do with having no divider on the stretch of highway, which is the closest we get to a freeway experience on Kaua‘i. The two recent deadly accidents aren’t the first, and unfortunately won’t be the last. With a deep drainage ditch on the mauka side of the highway, and the Wailua Golf Course on the makai side there’s really no where else to go with widening this highway. Adding a third lane meant leaving no room for a shoulder on the mauka side of the road in this area, for those who remember when two-lane Kuhio Highway became three-lane Kuhio Highway over ten years ago.
While the live speeding signs are helping, a long-term solution to this deadly traffic problem is needed. That solution may well be the fast-track construction of a two-lane mauka highway as well as more warning signs along the road.
Another problem is the weekly turnover of visitors to Kaua‘i who tour the island in rental cars. By next week most visitors on the island will have no idea that two deadly traffic accidents happened in recent weeks at the Wailua Golf Course entrance area.
Just like visitors are warned about ocean dangers from high surf, rip currents and shallow bottoms it is time to better inform them of Kaua‘i’s traffic hazards. In a friendly, local style way they need to be informed that they are now on an island where drivers are both generally more relaxed then those who face heavy traffic in the Mainland’s metropolitan areas, and on the other hand, Kaua‘i’s residents don’t all spend the day at the beach every day, but have to get to work just like on the Mainland. While the visitor industry has been proactive about letting visitors know about driving on Kaua‘i, this work needs to be stepped up now. A handout given to arriving passengers at the airport, or a boxed warning in visitor publications, special brochures given out at rental car agencies in addition to the creation of some traffic safety Web pages on major Kaua‘i visitor Web sites would help out.
Local residents also could use a refresher course in safe driving, perhaps through a Ho‘ike show or public service advertisements in print and on the radio.
Local drivers ticketed or arrested for illegal street racing need to face stiffer penalties than a speeding ticket. The current session of the Legislature is looking at such a response, and Kaua‘i’s legislators should back such lawmaking.
This trend is a statewide one, influenced in part by drivers increased abuse of alcohol, “Ice” and other illicit drugs, by the popularity in movies and within youth culture of illegal street racing, and by the sped-up lifestyle many Kaua‘i residents are experiencing with the changes the 21st century is bringing to our island community.
