State plans stop signs
near school crosswalkOfficials say children have nearly
been hit at a busy intersection
in Iroquois Point
The state will install long-awaited four-way stop signs at a busy Ewa intersection where residents say a number of children have been nearly struck while crossing a five-lane road fronting their elementary school.
Iroquois Point Road currently has a crosswalk but no stop sign in front of Holomua Elementary School. More than 1,400 kindergarten-through-sixth-grade students attend the school, and dozens from subdivisions in the area cross the road every morning and afternoon, said Principal Norman Pang.
Parents and administrators have been pushing for more safety measures at the intersection since the school opened more than eight years ago.
"We're very happy and it's about time," Pang said. "We're really glad that the state is finally putting in that stop sign."
Sen. Willie Espero (D, Ewa Beach), who helped push for the four-way stop, said "it's difficult for the kids to cross" at the intersection.
"There have been close calls with pedestrians," he said. "It's becoming more dangerous."
Installation of the four-way stop is an interim fix until Gentry Homes Ltd. puts in a required stoplight at the intersection in 2005 as part of its master plan, said state Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.
Stop signs are already posted where Keaunui Drive intersects Iroquois Point Road.
Pang said drivers on Iroquois Point Road have been seen speeding through the area, even if pedestrians are in the crosswalk and other cars are stopped to let them pass.
He said a first-grader was crossing the road in the afternoon two months ago when an oncoming car stopped to let the child pass, while another did not and missed the student by feet.
The car was so close that the child got disoriented and started heading away from his home until a family friend stopped him.
Espero said he recommended installing the four-way stop a number of months ago because more houses were being built in the area, and the school's population, already among the largest in the islands for an elementary school, was expected to increase.
Before that, residents were pushing for a stoplight at the intersection.
Crews will work to install the signs from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday. Road closures might take place during those times, Ishikawa said.
