Bus drivers must turn on interior lights upon request

Question: How would you call 911 on behalf of someone else in another city/state? For example, your child is going to college in another state and he needs emergency help but calls home. How would you do that?

Answer: You should call the city’s area code, for example 206 for Seattle or 202 for Washington, D.C., followed by 911, said Michelle Yu, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department.

HPD’s 911 system does not transfer calls to other cities’ 911 systems, she said.

Question: I ride the Route 65 (Kaneohe-Kahaluu) buses to and from downtown, Monday to Friday, and like to read my Star-Advertiser and do the crossword puzzle. Most of the buses’ interiors are lit only on the left side, which is OK if the bulbs emit a bright light. However, some buses are so dimly lit, I can barely see the print. What kind of requirement does TheBus have regarding lighting?

Answer: During "hours of darkness," Oahu Transit Services requires at least one circuit of interior lights to be turned on.

That’s for the "safety, convenience of passengers and to reduce incidents of vandalism on buses," said spokeswoman Michelle Kennedy.

Most bus operators will leave only one circuit of lights on at night, she said, because it reduces the glare on the interior of the windshield and provides a safer ride for passengers.

Along long stretches of road in dark rural areas without street lights, bus operators may use their discretion and turn off interior lights, she said. "However, if a passenger requests that the interior lights be turned on, the bus operator must comply with the passenger’s request."

During daylight or during the hours of darkness when one circuit is already on, the operator is not required to make any further adjustments, Kennedy said.

During the day, some operators may choose to turn on the lights, she said, but that is not a requirement.

Kennedy explained that the interior lights have only on/off switches. So operators can choose to turn on one or both circuits, but they are not in control of the intensity of the lights.

Lanikai Sea walls

Regarding the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands investigating four properties in Lanikai after Kokua Line forwarded a complaint about rocks being dumped along the shoreline ("Kokua Line," Oct. 28):

Resident Holly Fernandez said she’d like to give her family’s side of the story, noting that her family has lived at Lanikai Beach since 1958.

She said her family has put rocks fronting their Lanikai home over the years to prevent erosion and maintains that has facilitated bringing sand back.

"There was little beach in front of our house and shortly after experiencing the winter storms here we built a 6-foot cement and rock wall to help keep our home safe from the encroaching ocean," she said in an email.

Fernandez said the beach fronting their house grew larger for many years, but in 1969 her family needed to put "some large boulders in front of the wall and cemented over our beach-side lawn, because of another fierce ocean storm period."

She said the beach grew to where the wall became completely submerged by sand, with at least 40 yards of beach in front of their house, plus a grassy area. But about three years ago the sand started to go away.

"Recently, in order to save the existing wall we had to put some rocks again in front of our house," Fernandez said. The initial wall, plus addition of rocks "does not make the sand disappear, it actually facilitated bringing sand back," she said. "We are just trying to save our property that we pay good taxes on and it is our understanding that we have jurisdiction over land above the high-water mark."

DLNR’s investigation is still in the "investigative phase," a spokeswoman said Monday.

Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.