Honolulu Police Maj. Darren Izumo, head of the Traffic Division, cautions drivers against falling into any of the dreaded “D” categories — drunk, distracted, drowsy, drugged and “just plain dumb.”

In this case, dumb represents reckless driving and speeding.

As for drunken driving, arrests have gone down significantly since the 1980s, but Izumo hopes to stay ahead of a newer trend: “drug driving.” Drugs in this context are prescription medications that can impair a driver if taken incorrectly or if mixed with other medications.

The 25-year HPD veteran with more than a decade spent in traffic investigations says it’s important for motorists to pay attention to the roadways and recognize that even minor fender benders caused by a moment of inattention can lead to major congestion. Traffic collisions can shut down major roadways, the most recent being the hours-long closure of all eastbound H-1 lanes last week during the morning rush after a body was discovered.

Izumo hopes that a new, $150,000 Leica ScanStation will speed up major traffic investigations. The scan station’s mapping capabilities will replace laser measuring devices and can process more information in less time, Izumo said.

“Our goal is to clear scenes faster so the roads can be reopened sooner — but without sacrificing the integrity of the investigation,” he said.

Izumo, 55, who often serves as a spokesman at fatal crash scenes, sports Elvis-like sideburns that distinguish him from similar-looking majors with short hair. Izumo, who has a wife, son and daughter, laughs when he explains how he ended up with the police department.

“Truthfully, I was otherwise unemployable,” Izumo said. “My degree (from University of Hawaii at Manoa) is in personnel and industrial relations (now human resources management). I couldn’t get a job. HPD is always hiring.”

Izumo oversees a budget of about $12 million with 146 positions, 80 percent of which are filled. The division includes the Vehicular Homicide Section, Solo Motorcycle Detail and Parking Enforcement and Collections Section, as well as the Junior Police Officers program and Volunteer Special Enforcement Officer Program, which goes after disabled-parking scofflaws.

Question: How did you end up in the Traffic Division?

Answer: As a patrol officer you’ll see them come out to fatal and critical collisions. When I became a corporal, or detective, in 1999, I started in traffic. After that I got promoted.

I was a child-abuse detective in CID (Criminal Investigation Division) for four years. I was in Internal Affairs for two years.

… I was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to vehicular homicide. That was in 2006.

Q: Is there a huge learning curve in vehicular homicide investigation?

A: The minimum training that you need to go to just to kind of understand what you’re looking at at a crash scene is four weeks’ worth of classroom. … Now some of our senior investigators and sergeants have a thousand classroom hours.

Q: Take me through some of the things that traffic investigators need to learn.

A: Basically, you have to know how to use a calculator, because you’ll be plugging numbers, data that you gather at a scene or that you discover, into formulas to figure out, say, how fast a vehicle was going or how many feet it might take to stop that vehicle, things like that. There’s a lot of math and physics involved.

Q: And did you excel at that in college?

A: Funny thing is that, I think like most adults when you stop taking math in high school or college you think you’ll never use it again.

My first day in those traffic crash investigation classes, I’m hitting myself in the head for not paying more attention at the time.

Q: What goes into investigations that would warrant closing lanes for a long period of time?

A: It’s really on the first responding patrol officers to ascertain what they have. To use that example last week (Oct. 7, when H-1 eastbound at the Pali Highway was shut down), you have a deceased party on the freeway. Whether or not it’s a homicide, suicide or a traffic, simple accident, it can’t be determined yet. That’s why in this case both traffic and CID responded. That’s kind of unusual to have both involved.

… Always in the back of our mind, of course, is the traffic tie-up that is behind the scene. But our first obligation is to do the best investigation we can, and that’s for the victim or victims. …

In this case, all four lanes had evidence, but even if it involved only two of the four, for the safety of the personnel there — all the first responders, fire, EMS (Emergency Medical Services), police, the salvage guys, the tow trucks — we determine how much of the roadway to close to keep it safe. A lot of times that involves shutting it down entirely because any traffic can be dangerous. We’ll close what we need to preserve the scene and to be safe, but no more than that.

Q: Can you walk me through some of the things that have to be done at a scene?

A: Let’s say it’s strictly a (fatal) traffic collision, … the vehicular homicide folks will … investigate the scene. They will diagram the scene. They’ll take in a lot of the types of evidence except for maybe biological evidence. Our scientific investigation section will do that. They’ll photograph.

See, that’s the difference between a regular homicide detective and a vehicular homicide detective. A homicide detective will have the evidence techs take his photos and do a lot of diagrams and stuff. Our vehicular homicide investigators do all that themselves. It’s time-consuming, but for the integrity of the case, they can actually attest to what they’re looking at and what they’re photographing — as opposed to bringing in a non-sworn person, who is very competent in evidence, but is not a trained collision investigator to know exactly what they’re looking at.

And then there is interviewing witnesses, victims. What’s important is you can lock people into a statement at the time and while it’s still fresh in their memory, too.

Q: Any other important steps in the process?

A: … Keep in mind that on a fatality, with a body there, only the Medical Examiner has jurisdiction in the removal of the body. If they can’t get there, the road stays closed. We’ve coordinated with them quite well, I think, so that they’ll prioritize a traffic fatality as a higher priority than, say, somebody who died in his hot tub. They’ll respond to our case first so that we can clear the roads faster.

Q: Are there any particular areas you want to focus on as far as public education?

A: One thing that is on the rise, especially on the mainland, and as you know trends tend to come here, is drug driving, driving impaired due to medication. When I say drugs people tend to think of cocaine. We have that, too, but we also have people on prescription medication who either don’t follow the instructions on the dosing or how and when to take it or (don’t know that it) may cause drowsiness or are mixing with other medications that can impair you. It’s on the rise and we want to make sure that … trend doesn’t happen here.

Q: This is something across the nation?

A: As you know, once the marijuana dispensaries open up (in Hawaii), while it may be legal to obtain the drug, it’s not legal to drive under the influence of it.

Q: Are you prepping your folks for that?

A: Our night enforcement unit, all of those officers are drug-recognition experts. We try to train as many HPD, sheriff and military personnel in that, too, in an effort to detect and prevent.

Q: Any other areas you want to highlight?

A: The highlight areas, funny, they begin with D. We touched on drug drivers, of course there’s drunk drivers, distracted drivers, drowsy drivers. With the hospitality industry, a lot of people work, and police officers, too, we work shift work. We plead that you not drive tired. The next D, I’m not sure you can print this, but just plain dumb drivers. That would include your reckless, speeding types.

Q: With distracted drivers, are you able to pinpoint whether a fatality was caused by being distracted?

A: Sometimes, based on a witness or evidence we have by subpoenaing cellphone records.

But let’s go back to the traffic tie-up thing. If you’re on your cell, you’re four times more likely to be in a collision. If that collision is during rush hour, you’ve basically just shut down a lane of traffic.

On a four-lane freeway, cutting down one lane, intuitively, you’re thinking you’re cutting down 25 percent. Actually, because the way traffic has to merge, that’s more like 30-something percent. You’re basically reducing traffic by a third with one fender bender.

So any type of distraction that’ll get you into that has a backlash. The worst-case scenario is if you actually hurt or kill someone.

Q: Are drunken driving numbers going down?

A: They’ve definitely gone down from the ’80s, but it’s pretty stable in terms of the amount of impaired driving arrests made from year to year. It still goes on.

… One of the most common factors in all our collisions — whether it’s vehicle, motorcycle, pedestrian — is speed. Speed is a factor. Islandwide, all officers do speed enforcement. Solo bikes, in their enforcement duties, it’s their primary responsibility because of the mobility the bikes have. They are able to park safely on the side of the road.

Q: Could you answer whether officers have to fill quotas for issuing citations? Are there quotas?

A: To me, a quota means someone would get paid more if they do more. They can give as many citations as they want. We have work performance standards. I think the public would expect an officer, especially say a motorcycle officer in an eight-hour day, to give more than a few citations.

In an eight-hour day, I would expect at least 10 citations. Otherwise, what were you doing? And they might have an explanation. They might have been stuck at a fatal scene or assisting.

Generally speaking, the federal standard is four citations an hour if you’re going to work a federal grant for speed enforcement. If you’re going to work for three hours, you should come in with approximately 12 citations. That’s your federal tax dollars at work.

Here’s the thing that you got to really put out there that people don’t know. We don’t make a dime on citations. It all goes to the state general fund. It doesn’t even go to the city. There is no monetary incentive for any officer to give more tickets.

Q: Are there problem areas on Oahu that perhaps need some mitigation?

A: … As far as places, there was a time where (Waialua’s) Kaukonahua Road was, wow, there’re so many motorcycle fatalities. That’s because sport bikes were racing down there. Again if you drive or ride beyond your capabilities, these things happen. I think the speed limit there is 25 (mph).

If you went 25 on Kaukonahua Road, you probably cannot die. All roadways pretty much have speed limits or some type of safety mitigation like a guardrail, but it’s meant to function within those parameters that the engineers designed. If you go 50 on a 25 road, again, you’re beyond the limits of what … was designed. … It’s commonsensical. Don’t speed. Pedestrians, try to make yourself as visible as possible; use crosswalks. Don’t assume the driver sees you.

Q: Are there currently federal grants for speed enforcement?

A: The Traffic Division, we’re stewards of roughly $1.5 million in federal highway grants meant to be used primarily for enforcement purposes. The grants are divided into different categories: speeding, distracted driving, occupant protection, pedestrian grants, bicycle ones, too.

We try to spread the money out over the year. That’s distributed between the Traffic Division and all eight patrol districts. There is no one area that gets more enforcement.

Normal people say, “I’ll never drink and drive.” But there’s also, don’t speed. Wear your seatbelt. Make sure you keep your car in good mechanical condition. If you have children, make sure they are strapped in properly or in a safety seat.