Defeated mayoral candidate Panos Prevedouros surrendered to police yesterday and was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving.

He was released a half-hour later after posting $250 bail.

The University of Hawaii professor was wanted on a bench warrant for failure to appear in court on a traffic ticket from two years ago.

Prevedouros, who is best known for his opposition to the city's rail transit plans, said he had written a letter to the court well before the court date for the Nov. 15, 2006, ticket. The letter explained that he was busy serving on the city's Transit Advisory Task Force in addition to teaching at the University of Hawaii, and could not make the court date, asking to reschedule the hearing.

He said he received no response from the court. It was not until a television reporter recently came to him with the court record that he became aware of the bench warrant.

Prevedouros said, referring to recent publicity about the case, “;This is definitely a lame attempt—some form of character assassination. There is nothing really to it.”;

Prevedouros said he will wait until after his Nov. 14 district court hearing to discuss the reckless-driving charge but added that he does not know exactly why he got the ticket. The officer just checked “;reckless driving”; on the ticket, he said.

Prevedouros came in a distant third in the mayoral primary election to Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi and Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who will face each other in the general election.

Hannemann declined to comment on the arrest. Kobayashi, who selected Prevedouros to be “;chief adviser for infrastructure”; for her campaign, did not respond to a request for comment.

Prevedouros said he was a licensed race car driver in Hawaii until recently.