State plans to appeal The state will appeal a judge's ruling that concluded it was liable for the deaths and injuries at Sacred Falls State Park on Mother's Day 1999, Attorney General Earl Anzai said.
Sacred Falls ruling
A judge says signs did not adequately
warn visitors of rockslidesBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com"The court erroneously concluded that the nine warning signs in place at Sacred Falls Park at the time of the tragedy did not adequately warn park users of the nature, severity and location of the danger of falling rocks," Anzai said yesterday in a release announcing the appeal.
Anzai said signs at the now-closed Hauula park "specifically warned of the danger of falling rocks, warned that falling rocks had caused death and injuries in the past, and warned that if the public were to proceed past the signs, they should do so only at their own risk and they should use extreme caution."
A rockslide at Sacred Falls on May 9, 1999, killed eight people and injured 50 others.
Anzai's release quoted the wording of two of nine signs at the Park.
A sign at the park entrance said: "The upper end of the trail and the falls area are bordered by rocky cliffs and are subject to falling rocks and rockslides. Use trail at your own risk."
Another sign near the pedestrian gate said: "Falling rocks are dangerous. They have resulted in death and injuries here. Rocks fall at unpredictable times and with little or no warning."
The phrases quoted by the attorney general are part of lengthy signs at the entrance to the park, not at the falls where the greatest danger existed, said plaintiffs' attorney Larry Remillard.
"It is really misleading for the state to take those little snippets of information from these extremely wordy signs that were over two miles away from the hazard," Remillard said, "because national standards for warning signs, and even the standards that the state had in place, clearly require that warnings be properly addressed in close proximity to the hazards they refer to."
Remillard said yesterday he does not expect that Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario will allow the state to appeal the liability portion of the trial before continuing with the damages portion of the trial, now set for Jan. 23.
Del Rosario ruled Sept. 24 that the state was negligent in failing to adequately warn visitors of falling-rock hazards at Sacred Falls.
Plaintiffs' attorneys had been waiting to hear from the state about whether it would consider a settlement in the lawsuit, but had not received a formal response, Remillard said.
"I guess this press release by the attorney general is their way of responding," he said.
Remillard said he thinks the state will face greater financial liability by appealing, rather than settling the case. His reasoning, he said, is that the state's secondary insurer, Reliance Insurance Co., is in liquidation and may never be able to honor the state's $15 million policy.
Hawaii Sierra Club Director Jeff Mikulina yesterday called the appeal by the state "kind of a sideshow to the main deal, which is that they need to invest resources in the park system and trails."
Safe public access to public lands could be ensured by more spending on them, Mikulina said.
State of Hawaii
