COURTESY OF KITV The driver of a runaway dump truck loaded with boulders crashed into other trucks at a busy Kapolei intersection yesterday and overturned. As the dump truck turned over, it spilled its load of dirt and boulders, which crashed into cars that were stopped at the red light and headed in the mauka direction on Fort Barrette Road.

Runaway truck
overturns

Three people are hurt as a
truck carrying boulders enters a
busy intersection with no brakes

The driver of a runaway dump truck loaded with boulders crashed into other trucks at a busy Kapolei intersection and overturned yesterday, injuring himself and two others.

The accident happened at about 8:40 a.m. at the junction of Makakilo Drive, Farrington Highway and Fort Barrette Road. The runaway truck is owned by Pacific Trucking Inc.

Police said the truck apparently lost its brakes as it was heading makai on Makakilo Drive. Police said the driver was swerving to avoid other vehicles but apparently lost control of the truck after he crossed over the H-1 freeway.

As the truck approached the red light at the intersection with Farrington Highway, it jackknifed and crashed into two other commercial trucks and then overturned, police said.

One of the other trucks belonged to RCI Construction Group, and the other to Medeiros Trucking.

"It overturned, and all I could see is it sliding at us throwing boulders," said Dale Burke, who was coming back from the beach with his sister-in-law and niece. "If one of those rocks came through the windshield, we would have been gone.

"We're thankful to be alive."

Maribel Fermin, who was in her Honda Civic right behind Burke, said, "I saw the truck flip over and the boulders coming down.

"I was like, 'Oh my God.'"

The crash sent three people to the Queen's Medical Center: the male driver of the runaway truck, the male driver of one of the other trucks, and a woman who was in one of the cars hit by boulders.

Paramedics said the driver of the runaway truck was listed in serious condition, and the other motorists were in stable condition.

"I guess he lost his brakes coming down Makakilo Drive, came down through the intersection at a red light," said Honolulu police Sgt. Rudy Cagulada. "He turned hard left, and his trailer with the load impacted with the RCI truck and the Medeiros truck.

"Then these cars here got the wave of boulders. ... We were lucky. Things could have been a lot worse."

Victor Robles said something struck one of the bumpers off of his Nissan van, but he was not sure if it was the truck itself or one of the boulders. "I just don't know," he said.

His daughter Vanessa said their van was heading through the green light going toward town on Farrington Highway when she saw the truck come careening downhill toward them.

"It came down from Makakilo Drive and hit us on our left side," she said. "We're just shocked."

Police shut down the intersection for about an hour and a half while volunteer construction crews from Grace Pacific helped remove boulders and debris with two front-end loaders. Five of the vehicles damaged by the boulders were towed away.

"Guess I have to get a new car," Burke said.

Residents say alternate
route is needed to
prevent runaways

Residents have been lobbying for years for an alternate route to enter and exit Makakilo, which they say could prevent runaway truck accidents at the busy intersection of Makakilo Drive and Farrington Highway.

Yesterday's accident involving a runaway dump truck down Makakilo Drive was reminiscent of a runaway garbage truck that lost its brakes Nov. 26 on the same road, killing one man and injuring another.

Three people were injured yesterday as the truck crashed into other trucks at the junction of Makakilo Drive, Farrington Highway and Fort Barrette Road. In the November accident, the runaway truck got into the H-1 freeway eastbound onramp, swerved onto a dirt patch, rammed through shrubs and flew over an embankment, landing in the Kapolei Shopping Center parking lot.

"It's (Makakilo Drive) getting overtaxed, and we don't have any other way out of here," said Mike Golojuch, the Makakilo Neighborhood Board's transportation representative. A proposed road extension "would allow access and alleviate speeding down the hill one way, and (motorists) could go another way."

The plan would continue the mauka section of Makakilo Drive, which would loop around and head back down, eventually connecting to the planned North-South Road. The state will begin work on the North-South Road next month, which will take about three years to complete.

Castle & Cooke is putting in another mile of Makakilo Drive as it develops more housing, but that leaves yet another mile to complete before it could connect to the proposed North-South Road interchange onto the H-1 freeway.

Scott Ishikawa, Department of Transportation spokesman, said whoever develops the area will complete Makakilo Drive.

But no development is in sight.

"We need it now," Golojuch said of the road extension.

The Friends of Makakilo are also opposed to the continuing development in the area.

"We're building hundreds more homes up here," Friends of Makakilo President Kioni Dudley said. "Hundreds and hundreds of trucks are coming up here every day. We're lucky there haven't been more accidents.

"The problem often is trucks are overloaded," Dudley said. "It doesn't sound like necessarily this one was."