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Raising Cane Rob Perez |
Driver emerges unscathed
after fatal traffic accidentThe driver told police she didn't see the elderly man until the moment of impact. By then, it was too late.
Shortly before 8 p.m. on a gloomy, drizzly night in January 2002, the woman, a 23-year-old University of Hawaii student, was driving on Auahi Street less than a block from Ward Avenue.
The road was wet. The sky was overcast. Clouds obstructed a full moon. Yet the streetlights on the heavily used street were operating as usual.
But on this night, visibility was affected by the inclement weather, according to the police report on the accident.
Despite the drizzle, Yukio Igarashi, 70, was out for his daily walk. He was dressed in blue denim pants, a dark multi-colored floral print shirt and black sandals.
On his way home, the retired City and County of Honolulu worker tried to cross four-lane Auahi at the crosswalk near the Farmers' Market. He never made it to the other side.
Igarashi was struck while in the mid-block crosswalk, according to the police report. The woman's white Ford Mustang was in the left lane heading Diamond Head -- the speed limit was 25 mph -- when the impact occurred, the report said.
Igarashi was severely injured. He died the next day.
While no one apparently witnessed the accident and a teenage girl who was in the area told police the victim didn't appear to be in the crosswalk as he initially crossed the street, a police investigation determined Igarashi was in the crosswalk when he was hit.
Police concluded that the driver had committed three violations of Hawaii law -- inattentive driving, failure to exercise due care while driving and negligent homicide in the third degree -- and referred the case to prosecutors.
But the Prosecutor's Office recently decided to drop the case, determining the evidence was insufficient to prove the negligent homicide accusation beyond a reasonable doubt. To do that, it had to show the woman was guilty of simple negligence, or a failure to exercise ordinary care in her driving.
The Prosecutor's Office also didn't consider the two lesser offenses listed in the police report because the one-year statute of limitations for those charges had lapsed even before the case was referred to its office. Such charges typically are initiated through police citations.
But police didn't cite the woman for inattentive driving or failure to exercise due care because it was focusing on the more serious allegation, third-degree negligent homicide, according to a police spokeswoman.
Officers generally won't cite a motorist for traffic violations such as inattentive driving unless they witness the infraction being committed, the spokeswoman said.
As a result of the confluence of circumstances in this case, the UH student (whom I'm not naming because she was never formally charged) has emerged from this tragedy without so much as a traffic ticket.
The accident doesn't even show up on her public driving abstract, though a check in early April showed she was fined for speeding in 1999 and 2001.
That means the woman so far has suffered no legal consequences as a result of an accident police determined she was responsible for and that took the life of an elderly man on his daily walk.
Yes, it was an accident. The woman didn't intentionally hit the victim.
But her car did strike him while he was in the crosswalk, according to police. And it happened in the middle of a busy four-lane street -- not just as he stepped into the crosswalk -- on a night in which the rainy conditions warranted extra care by motorists. She told the police she didn't see the man until impact.
That, says an attorney for the Igarashi family, essentially shows she was inattentive and didn't sufficiently adjust the manner and speed in which she was driving, based on the conditions at the time.
"It's basically an admission of guilt," said attorney Allen Williams, who is representing Igarashi's survivors, including his cousin, Thomas Igarashi, 64. "She basically admitted she was inattentive."
The woman's attorney declined comment on the case, citing the possibility of litigation.
Police could not determine the speed of her vehicle at the time of the accident partly because there were no skid marks on the wet road.
The victim was not married, had no siblings and no children. Thomas Igarashi said his cousin was like a brother to him. He's upset that the woman responsible for the accident isn't being held accountable.
"You don't want to see a young, 23-year-old girl going to jail," said Thomas Igarashi. "Yet this young girl may walk away from all this with not even a citation."
Jim Fulton, a spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office, said his office wanted to pursue the case but the evidence didn't support a negligent homicide charge.
Negligent homicide in the third degree is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison, a $2,000 fine or both.
Because police found no indication of speeding or alcohol consumption on the driver's part and nothing else indicated a criminal violation, the incident appeared to be nothing more than a tragic accident, Fulton said.
"There is no criminal liability attached to this case at all," he said.
Fulton said any lingering issues -- such as questions about the attentiveness of the driver -- are matters for a civil court to settle, should a lawsuit result.
The fact that the victim had no immediate family and that the driver came from a wealthy family probably influenced the prosecutor's decision to drop the case, Thomas Igarashi said. "Money talks," he said.
Fulton, however, said those weren't factors at all. "Absolutely not."
Given what several people told police right after the accident, it's understandable how the Prosecutor's Office determined that the case couldn't be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
The teenager told police the victim didn't appear to be aware of his surroundings and seemed to be "focused on the ground" as he was walking. A security guard said visibility at the time was "very poor" and the area was not well lit.
Those accounts certainly would have been stressed by the defense had the case gone to trial.
It's not so easy to understand, however, why the driver wasn't given any kind of citation. Short of her insurance rates probably going up, how could she walk away from this tragedy with her record unscathed, as if nothing ever happened?
Something seems wrong with that picture.
There is one positive, though, that resulted from the accident, especially given Hawaii's status as one of the most dangerous states for pedestrian fatalities.
The crosswalk where Igarashi was hit now has a pedestrian traffic light.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Star-Bulletin columnist Rob Perez writes on issues
and events affecting Hawaii. Fax 529-4750, or write to
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. He can also be reached
by e-mail at: rperez@starbulletin.com.