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Countersuit
to be dropped in
firetruck case
The city was seeking damages
from a Feb. 23, 1998, collision
that killed Tracey Teruya, 27Council kills Nuuanu forest plan
By Rod Ohira
Star-BulletinCorporation Counsel David Arakawa plans to withdraw the city's countersuit seeking payment for damages to a firetruck involved in a fatal collision two years ago in Makiki.
Tracey Teruya, 27, was killed Feb. 23, 1998, in the collision at Wilder Avenue and Kewalo Street.
The Teruya family is suing Richard Spelman, who was driving the firetruck, and the city for negligence. The family's attorney, David Dezzani, called the city's countersuit "outrageous."
Arakawa was surprised to learn the countersuit had not been dropped.
"I apologize to the Teruya family," Arakawa said. "The counterclaim was supposed to have been dismissed a while ago.
"I was surprised to learn it still existed, and I will take steps to remove it."
The city closed the intersection at Wilder and Kewalo to traffic yesterday for four hours to conduct tests, focusing on the sound of the firetruck's siren.
"The testing appears to be an effort by the city to blame Tracey Teruya for the accident rather than acknowledging responsibility for the negligence its firefighters admitted to shortly after she was killed two years ago," Dezzani said.
Spelman and two firefighters as well as an on-duty police officer who witnessed the collision from about 100 feet away said the traffic light facing the firetruck was red when it entered the intersection, Dezzani said.
"The Fire Department driver's manual explicitly requires emergency vehicles proceeding against a red light to slow down, stop if necessary and make eye-to-eye contact with other drivers before proceeding into the intersection," Dezzani said.
At his deposition earlier this month, Spelman said that, based on his own personal observations, he has no reason to believe Teruya entered the intersection against a red light, says Dezzani.
The firetruck was traveling "well over" the speed limit when it entered the intersection, he added.
The suit, which is scheduled for jury trial in June, was still in mediation as of Monday, Arakawa said.
Prosecutors declined the case for criminal action.
"It's one thing to choose not to prosecute," Dezzani said, "but that doesn't clear anything on the civil side."
City Council kills
By Harold Morse
Nuuanu Valley forest
preserve plan
Star-BulletinA proposed forest preserve in lush Nuuanu Valley has been felled.
Before a hearing on the Nuuanu Reservoir park, backers withdrew their efforts yesterday in the face of strong opposition.
The City Council filed a bill that would have designated the park in the area on a city land-use map.
Testimony from about 15 speakers ran about 90 percent against the overall plan to open up the Nuuanu forest reserve to the public.
"After meetings with Hawaiian groups, naturalists, hunters and other interested groups, we decided to abandon this plan and downsized it to a gravel parking lot and gravel path around the reservoir," Bruce Anderson, president of the Friends of Nuuanu, told the Council yesterday.
"These facilities would support the existing activities presently happening in the valley," fishing and hunting, Anderson said.
Conceptual plans had called for a large parking lot, trails and a comfort station.
Anderson asked the Council to withdraw the bill that would have paved the way for the park, and that $200,000 allocated for park facilities in the capital improvements projects budget be withdrawn.
Although Anderson is state health director, he has said he advocated the park as a private citizen.
Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura later told a reporter the construction money probably will be taken out after the CIP budget goes back to committee.
Mayor Jeremy Harris said in a statement that he met with people on both sides of the Nuuanu Reservoir park issue and was pleased Friends of Nuuanu chose to withdraw their application for a development plan change.
"The Friends have agreed to forego any construction at this time and go back to the drawing board," Harris said. "They will meet with all parties to come up with a course of action that will be a 'win-win.'"
Testifying against the park plan were state Sen. Rod Tam (D, Downtown-Nuuanu), and former state Sen. Ann Kobayashi who said she grew up in Nuuanu Valley and that her brother and family still live there.
She referred to the reservoir site as a beautiful wilderness area.
"There are very few forests left on this island," she said. "We do not want to see the last of this treasured wilderness area."
City & County of Honolulu
