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Family says The family of a 76-year-old Mililani woman killed last August in a traffic accident in Wahiawa believes the accident could have been prevented had traffic signals promised by the state been ready as scheduled.
traffic signal might
have averted death
The Wahiawa light was
to have been installed in 2000By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com
The state Department of Transportation completed installation of the lights and turn lanes at the intersection of Leilehua Golf Course Road and Kamehameha Highway last month, said Martin Okabe, state DOT Highways Division Oahu District engineer.
The city hopes to turn on the new lights by the end of the month, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.
"Hopefully, that prevents other people from dying," said David Yoshikawa, whose mother, Harriet Yoshikawa, died in an Aug. 2 traffic accident at the intersection.
"That's what the light is supposed to be for," said Morita Kokubun, Yoshikawa's brother.
David Yoshikawa was aware that there were many accidents at the intersection, but was shocked when a Honolulu medical examiner told him that six people died at the intersection in the three years prior to his mother's death, he said.
The state DOT started design work in 1998 and expected to complete the project by December 2000.
However, construction did not begin until December 2000 because of a number of unforeseen problems in the design of the project, said Gary Choi, state DOT Highways Division Design Branch.
"There was no one specific thing that caused the delay, just a whole bunch of things that came up," he said.
The construction and installation were also delayed.
"We had communication coordination problems with Hawaiian Tel, then the city Department of Transportation Services, that were later rectified," Okabe said. The city coordinates traffic signals islandwide over telephone lines.
The traffic signal lights were installed to cut down on the number of collisions between cars attempting to make a left turn onto Kamehameha Highway from Leilehua Golf Course Road and cars traveling north on the highway.
At 9:20 p.m. on Aug. 2 last year, while the project was under construction, a car driven by Yoshikawa's 53-year-old daughter was making a left turn from Leilehua Golf Course Road onto the town-bound lanes of Kamehameha Highway when it was hit broadside by a car traveling Wahiawa-bound.
Yoshikawa and her daughter were taken to Queen's Medical Center, where Yoshikawa died three hours later. Her daughter was released from the hospital two weeks later.
The driver of the other car was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation by the Honolulu Police Department Traffic Division.
David Yoshikawa said that on the evening of the accident, the contractor had placed some barriers on the highway as it did some preparatory work, and the flashing lights on the barriers may have prevented the two drivers from noticing each other's cars.
There are no street lights on that stretch of the highway.
The speed limit is 35 miles per hour. Yoshikawa said cars often speed in both directions.