Tour company launches internal investigation after fatal trolley crash

Travel Plaza Transportation, a subsidiary of JTB Hawaii, has launched an internal investigation into a trolley accident involving one of its drivers that killed a 76-year-old pedestrian.

David Kmetz, 52, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of first-degree negligent homicide and operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant. Kmetz refused to take a field sobriety test at the scene. He was released as traffic investigators reviewed evidence in the case, including a video of the incident. Had Kmetz continued to be held, police said that they would have been required to charge or release him within 48 hours of his arrest.

The trolley, with a half-dozen tourists aboard, was traveling east on Auahi Street at around 3:49 p.m. when it attempted to turn north onto Cooke Street and struck the victim, who police believe was in a marked crosswalk. The victim, who has not yet been identified by the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office, suffered critical injuries and died at the scene.

Yujiro Kuwabara, Travel Plaza Transportation president, said Saturday, “The death of this gentleman has saddened all of us throughout the entire JTB organization. We feel terrible this happened because of this accident. We are cooperating fully with the police in their investigation and are conducting our own internal investigation to better ensure an accident like this does not happen again.”

Kuwabara said the company also will continue to follow up with the eight passengers from Japan who were on the trolley when the accident occurred and underwent several hours of police interviews before they were allowed to return to their hotels.

Kuwabara said when Kmetz was hired March 13, he held a current commercial driver’s license and had passed medical, drug and alcohol testing. He also had endorsements from government and regulatory agencies that set the requirements for operating the buses and trolleys used by Travel Plaza Transportation.

He said all of the company’s new drivers go through bus operator training that meets industry standards and are retrained and evaluated on a regular basis.

Kuwabara said safety is the company’s top priority.

“We are very strict with our drivers at ensuring they adhere to all government regulations and our company requirements to fulfill their duties on behalf of Travel Plaza Transportation. For example, if any of them fail a drug or alcohol test, they are terminated immediately,” he said.

“At this moment, we are unaware of any other contributing factors beyond the charges he was arrested for by the Honolulu Police Department. Our internal investigation will help us in making that determination,” Kuwabara said.

The company, which employs 85 drivers, carried approximately 2.5 million passengers on motor coach and trolley rides in Hawaii last year, he said.

Kuwabara said that the company’s internal records show that Travel Plaza Transportation’s vehicles were involved in 133 total accidents, most of which were minor incidents in which no one was injured. The 133 accidents are broken down as 55 preventable accidents, such as backing into a tree, and 78 unpreventable accidents, such as being rear-ended, he said.

“In the first nine months of 2018, our vehicles have been involved in 54 total accidents, 22 of which are characterized as preventable and 32 that were unpreventable,” he said.

Star-Advertiser reporter Michael Tsai contributed to this story.