Some Makaha residents raised concerns Thursday about speeding and a perceived lack of police enforcement at night along a dark stretch of Farrington Highway where a crash caused by an alleged drunken driver killed a 3-year-old boy.
“Farrington Highway is not safe, and the reason it is not safe is we need a lot of enforcement,” said John DeSoto, president of the Makaha Hawaiian Civic Club, which will hold a vigil at 1 p.m. today at the Makaha Surfing Beach for the boy, Ashton Brown.
Brown was the second person in seven months to be killed by a vehicle along Farrington Highway in Makaha. A 22-year-old Waianae man was hit by a hit-and-run driver on the night of Aug. 29 while walking along Farrington Highway about a mile from Wednesday’s crash. He died at the scene, and the driver was arrested nearby.
“A lot of people are very frustrated,” said DeSoto, a former city councilman. “They’re frustrated because during the day we’ve got 500-something traffic violations but in the evening, nothing.”
DeSoto referred to the Honolulu Police Department issuing 514 citations from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. March 20 on the Leeward Coast.
“They all left already (by nightfall), so we’ve got all the chronics and all the people doing the illegal activities in the evening and it gets frustrating,” DeSoto said. “We feel like we’ve been used as a dumping ground. There’s no enforcement.”
Police have been conducting driving enforcement efforts at night, including a sobriety checkpoint from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Farrington Highway in Maili, according to the HPD Facebook page.
“The department is continually conducting enforcement but unfortunately cannot be everywhere at all times,” Assistant Police Chief Clayton Kau said. “This incident is a tragic reminder of how important it is for drivers to slow down and drive responsibly.”
Mona Neill, a member of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board, said the area needs better lighting and road markings as well as more police patrols at night.
She said she often has to call police at night because people are drinking next to the roadway along Makaha Surfing Beach.
“They can get run over because they’re drinking and they don’t realize they’re that close to the cars passing by,” she said. “It’s not safe for the drivers, it’s not safe for those guys.”
Anita Diaz of Makaha lives about three blocks from Farrington Highway and often catches the bus at Water Street and Farrington, just a few bus stops from the crash.
She said she’s at the bus stop at 5 a.m. nearly every day and routinely sees cars traveling 50 or 60 mph or faster on the two-lane road, which has a posted speed limit of 35 mph.
“They speed, they pass, they overtake each other,” Diaz said. “Part of the highway is pretty dark at that hour of the morning.”
She’s seen two pedestrians nearly get hit and was almost hit herself by a truck at Water Street.
“They got some serious safety issues there,” she said. She said many pedestrians walk along the road because there is no sidewalk, and suggested making a pedestrian walkway behind some barriers on the makai side of the road where there is room.
Failing that, police should post a cruiser near Jade Street closer to Kaena Point to slow speeders, Diaz said.
Analia Barboza, who lives near the crash site, said, “What people don’t realize is that this road has such a curvature to it, and it’s so tilted. If you’re drunk and you’re speeding, you’ll lose control.”
Said Diaz, “My heart goes out to this family. These are needless things that could have been prevented had something been done a long time ago. It’s time for the city to do something.”
