Notable mistakes by county employees

LIHUE — Four times a year, county officials issue a report on claims filed by Kauai residents whose property was damaged by government employees. Here are some of the incidents in 2019 that led to financial settlements.

One resident said Kauai Police officers shot a teacher’s computer monitor with rubber bullets during an active shooter training session in a Kauai High School classroom on July 18.

“During the training, in an effort to make as realistic as possible, the officers used rubber bullets. At some point during the drill one of the rubber bullets struck his monitor on his desktop computer,” the quarterly report said. “When he turned the monitor on following his return to his classroom on August 1 the screen displayed an image of a fracture, like a bullet hole in a glass window.”

The county paid $146 for damaging the computer.

An equipment rental and trash disposal company employee drove into Kekaha landfill in February 2019 and was directed by a county worker to an area where he could dump his load. But when he got to the location and got out of the truck to open the back doors, he heard the spotter yelling, “Stop, Stop,” according to the report.

“When he turned to look he saw a dozer backing towards his truck,” the report said. “He also began yelling to “Stop” but the dozer driver continued to drive into the parked vehicle.”

The driver of the bulldozer got a verbal warning, and the county settled the $2,000 claim for $1,467.

One resident filed a claim against the county after a Kauai Bus driver drove under the overpass at Rainbow Plaza in Kalaheo. According to the county’s report, the driver was not aware of the height of the bus he was operating and hit the building as he passed through.

The driver was not reprimanded, the report said, because the mistake was due to a lack of instructions on how to access the area and was not provided vehicle clearance information. Damage to the building cost $969.