Witnesses watched
helplessly as pinned
driver tried to escape
Andrew Meneses was about a mile from the fatal crash early yesterday morning when he "saw a huge fireball light up the sky."
CORRECTION
Thursday, Feb. 19, 2003>> Andrew Meneses was a witness to the aftermath of the Friday fatal accident on H-1. His last name was misspelled on some subsequent references in an article on Page A1 Saturday.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com."I knew it was something bad and something big," said Meneses, 35, who had left his job at Honolulu Airport where he is a reservation representative for United Airlines. Just after 3 a.m. he was driving west on H-1 toward his home in Ewa Beach.
Meneses immediately called 911, but he said the dispatchers already seemed to know about the crash.
The early morning crash killed four people and injured two. Police said two cars were racing when they hit a flatbed truck and burst into flames. The driver and passenger of one car were killed. A passenger in the truck was killed, as was the driver of the second car.
When Meneses arrived at the scene, a Zipper Lane truck that sets out safety cones had a car wedged underneath it. He said truck and car seemed welded together as bright flames, as high as the street lights, engulfed both.
Meneses parked in the shoulder and stepped from his car to join others who had arrived. There were erratic, small explosions and debris flew in the air.
The fire lit up the interior of a second car, a Mitsubishi Eclipse sport coupe, that had crashed into the back of the car and truck. Flames were creeping up the front of the car, said Meneses.
Inside, Menses could see a man trapped, his arms flailing, as he called for help.
"I could see his face and our eyes locked," said Meneses, who added that he cannot shake the memory or the feelings of helplessness. "I could see he was in pain and scared of getting burned."
Meneses said he and several others who had stopped tried to edge near the car, but the heat was intense and the small explosions rattled them. They wondered how much gas was in the vehicles' tanks.
Meneses said the passenger-side door of the sports coup was open, making it easier to see the trapped man inside. Before Meneses arrived, another bystander had stopped and pulled the passenger from the car.
But Menses said there was no way to get to the trapped driver. He said the driver looked pinned beneath the steering column and dashboard as the whole front of the car crushed in the crash.
"He was pinned in his car, and we couldn't go near him because of the heat and the explosions. The steering column and the whole car was just leveled flat in front of him, on him. He was trapped. There was no way to help."
Meneses said in a slow, hollow voice: "His eyes were so full of despair. There was this realization on his face. He had the look of a person who didn't want to die but knew it was coming slowly. That's not a nice way to die. He knew he was going to burn."
Meneses stared at the floor of his Ewa Beach home and said: "His voice keeps ringing in my mind. It's stuck in my mind over and over. His arms were flailing. And I just keep hearing his voice and seeing his eyes."
He said people who had arrived earlier said they had seen the two cars racing.
"It gets very, very dark out there," said Meneses, wondering if visibility played a role.
He knows from his own night commutes how dark stretches of H-1 can get, despite the street lights.
Meneses said that he and about eight other people stood helplessly at the roadside, hearing the man scream as they exchanged glances and frustration that no emergency vehicles were there yet.
Menses said they all thought it took a long time for emergency vehicles to get there. But he also admits that the horror and helplessness of watching a man die might have distorted his sense of time.
"No police, no ambulance, no nobody," said Meneses. "It was so despairing. It's harsh to blame emergency services. They risk their lives every day and don't deserve criticism. But in your mind you have a set notion that they will be there when you need them. And we all stood there asking each other where they were."
Menses, checking his cell phone call log for verification, said he made the last of several 911 calls at 3:17 when he had already been at the scene for some time.
According to Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Kenison Tejada, Engine 38 on Kaahumanu Street in Waiau was called at 3:13 a.m.
Tejada said the first firetruck left the station at 3:15 a.m. and arrived by 3:20. A second fire company arrived on the scene at 3:24, and the third at 3:29.
Meneses checked his cell phone again for the time he made a call as he left the scene. He made that call at 3:32.
"By then all the emergency services was there, and I felt I would just be in the way."
