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By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Two men died on Kamananui Road in Wahiawa yesterday
when their Honda Civic was hit by a pickup truck. The main
part of the Honda is shown on the right side of the picture,
while the rear of the car is on the far right.

Speed, driver error
blamed in wrecks

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By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Kaukonahua Road's S-shaped curves, the straightaway of Kamananui Road and the subtle slopes of Wilikina Drive become a danger zone for speeding or inattentive motorists.

All are two-lane roadways with no middle barriers, free of traffic jams.

When it rains, as it did yesterday, water can bring red dirt onto the roadway, making for slippery conditions that are doubly dangerous.

"The roads are narrow but not really dangerous," Wahiawa Patrol District Lt. Larry Shiraishi said. "Driver error and speed make it dangerous."

Traffic on Wilikina Drive goes in and out of Wahiawa town. Wilikina and Kamananui Road, which heads north toward Haleiwa, intersect at a Y-shaped intersection.

Kamananui intersects with Kaukonahua, which leads to Waialua, near the pineapple variety garden on Kamehameha Highway.

In the past 22 months, six people have been killed in motor vehicle collisions in the danger zone.

Three people died on Wilikina Drive in 1999 and one this year on Kaukonahua Road.

Yesterday, a collision between a 1995 Honda Civic sedan and GMC pickup truck on Kamananui Road at 9:30 a.m. killed two Army men from Schofield Barracks who were in the car, raising the Oahu fatality count this year to 50.

The impact split the Honda in two.

The two men, who were not wearing seat belts, were ejected from the car and landed about 20 feet away from the front end of the car.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names have not been released.

The woman driver of the truck is in stable but guarded condition at Tripler Army Medical Center.

Witnesses told police the Honda was traveling very fast and trying to overtake another vehicle.

The driver lost control and the car was swerving on the wet roadway when it was struck by the truck headed toward Wahiawa.

"People speed, that's the key," police vehicular homicide investigator Sgt. John Agno said.

Shiraishi said there are more accidents at the Wilikina-Kamananui intersection and on Kaukonahua Road than on Kamananui Road.

The intersection is where two Chaminade University students were killed and two others injured in a broadside collision between a pickup truck and a car turning left in January 1999.

Kamananui is "a long straightaway and you can see in both directions so people tend to speed," he said. "The problem at the intersection is mostly inattentive driving, people not stopping at the sign."