The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has hired veteran journalist Kevin Dayton as its new reporter covering transportation, in particular Oahu’s multibillion-dollar rail project.

Dayton takes over coverage of transportation issues from reporter Gene Park, who has joined the Star-Advertiser’s online news department.

Dayton is an award-winning journalist who was instrumental in the Honolulu Advertiser’s domestic abuse series, "Crossing the Line: Abuse in Hawaii Homes," which won a national Dart Award for excellence in coverage of trauma in 2009. The series included "Daysha’s Diary," a recounting by Dayton of the life of an abuse victim, in part from journal entries before she was killed.

Dayton, who leaves his position as executive assistant to Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi, was the Advertiser’s Hawaii island bureau chief from 2002 to 2008, as well as state Capitol bureau chief from 1999 to 2002. He was a reporter at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald from 1994 to 1998.