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President Barack Obama and family ended what could be their last Hawaii holiday vacation of his presidency Saturday, but not before leaving several hundred Oahu motorists a little something to remember them by.
Traffic in the eastbound lanes of the H-1 freeway between Aiea and Pearl City stalled for about an hour as the presidential motorcade traveled from the first family’s final dining stop at Buzz’s Lanikai to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where Air Force 1 waited to take them back to Washington, D.C.
The congestion was prolonged when a car overheated and caught fire. According to witnesses, the gridlock prevented emergency vehicles from immediately reaching the burning vehicle.
No injuries were reported.
Rj Nelson, 21, of Kalihi, entered H-1 from Moanalua Road in Pearl City at about 9:30 p.m. and immediately noticed cars stopping on the freeway. Before long all lanes came to a dead halt.
“I actually turned off my car,” he said. “I seen people walking around the freeway.”
Obama left Buzz’s at 9:43 p.m. and arrived at Hickam 36 minutes later, at 10:19 p.m. Colleen Nelson, a Wall Street Journal reporter riding with the motorcade, said nothing unusual happened during the drive.
But the motorcade frustrated motorists and created a sea of red lights across six lanes of the freeway, according to a traffic camera photo posted on social media by the city’s goakamai.org website.
Soon after stopping, Rj Nelson noticed smoke about 100 yards ahead, which turned out to be a car fire with flames 10 feet high.
Firefighters and police couldn’t immediately get through the traffic and took about 15 minutes to reach the burning vehicle, he said.
“If there wasn’t traffic, they would have made it on time,” he said.
He said some people exited their vehicles to try to direct other drivers and clear a path for the emergency vehicles.
Once traffic resumed, the gridlock cleared up quickly, but the burned shell of the vehicle remained in the second lane from the right, Nelson said.
At Hickam, meanwhile, Obama spent a few minutes shaking hands with several dozen service members and their families. At one point the president reached far over the barricade to shake a young girl’s hand.
The president was also greeted by Gov. David Ige and his wife, Dawn.
The first family has spent every Christmas holiday in Hawaii since Obama was elected president in 2008. It has been widely speculated, however, that Obama will opt to stay in Washington next Christmas, the last of his administration.
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