OMA‘O — After a teenage driver flipped a sport utility vehicle she was driving on Kaumuali‘i Highway last month, some residents aired their concerns about the stretch of road near Mile Marker 9 in Oma‘o being particularly accident-prone. Jay Robertson
OMA‘O — After a teenage driver flipped a sport utility vehicle she was driving on Kaumuali‘i Highway last month, some residents aired their concerns about the stretch of road near Mile Marker 9 in Oma‘o being particularly accident-prone.
Jay Robertson said he and several neighbors are often the first at the scene whenever a crash occurs in the area. While he “fortunately” did not recall any accidents being fatal in the 20 years he has lived there, he did say there have at times been multiple wrecks in a single week. He questioned whether the state might be able to do more to curb the collisions.
“People drive insanely wild at this stretch of the road,” he said. “The people that live here are amazingly responsive. Our ears are trained to recognize these noises. At least four houses respond to every one.”
The Department of Transportation does not include this 1,000-foot stretch of Kaumuali‘i Highway on its high-accident listing for Kaua‘i, a state DOT spokesperson said. There were 10 “major” accidents — defined as those involving fatalities, injuries or property damage of at least $3,000 — on this span of highway from 2003 to 2007, according to DOT records.
The teen who fell asleep at the wheel and ran the mid-size SUV into a guardrail on Jan. 9 sustained only minor injuries, along with two juvenile passengers who were buckled in the rear seats.
Robertson said the cost of repairing guardrail damage alone is cause for concern.
While the state was unable to track down the number of times the guardrail in that location was repaired due to accidents, the DOT spokesperson said the DOT is responsible for the repairs, not the driver.
“I’m sure it’s costing the state a bundle to replace the guardrail,” Robertson said.
If the state Attorney General’s Office can present sufficient evidence that a guardrail was damaged due to an accident, then they can pursue reimbursement from the driver’s insurance company, the spokesperson said.
Robertson said he sees drivers passing on the solid double yellow line and noted the road creates a bad situation, specifically in two downhill stretches where some eastbound drivers step on the gas and then mix with a variety of slow- and fast-moving cars coming up the hill.
He said the two forces meet at Oma‘o Road, and that’s where accidents like the one last month seem to happen the most.
Robertson said he and other neighbors have talked about getting an emergency kit ready in case of an accident. He said flares could help prevent unsuspecting drivers from crashing into the scene of an accident, causing a “train collision.”
• Nathan Eagle, interim managing editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or via e-mail at neagle@kauaipubco.com
