The city Department of Transportation Services plans to meet with the community to discuss ways to combat racing and drifting on Tantalus Drive in the wake of a crash that left a champion triathlete with severe injuries after a car racing up the road slammed into her.
“We’re basically going to try to use every tool in our toolkit that’s possible to try to see how we can minimize and just discourage speeding and that kind of activity up there,” said Deputy
Director Jon Nouchi.
The Transportation Services Department is coordinating with Honolulu City Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, who represents the Tantalus area, to arrange a series of community meetings to come up with solutions to address racing and drifting.
“Anything we propose, we want it to be really in line with what the neighborhood has vetted and what is the most appropriate for safety and with the neighborhood in mind,” Nouchi added.
Lectie Altman, 33, a champion triathlete, remains in critical but stable condition at The Queen’s Medical Center after she suffered multiple fractures when a Nissan sedan operated by a 20-year-old man plowed into her.
Police said that during the afternoon hours Thursday, the suspect was reportedly racing with another vehicle up Tantalus Drive when he lost control, veered into the opposite lane of the winding roadway and struck Altman near the third lookout.
She was riding a bicycle down the roadway with a group of cyclists from Boca Hawaii at the time.
Altman, a swimming and cycling coach at Boca Hawaii, was transported to Queen’s in critical condition.
Police arrested Taylor
Liang, 20, on suspicion of first-degree negligent injury, a Class C felony. He was released Friday pending further investigation.
Such investigations could take 90 days to possibly a year to complete.
Nouchi said speeding on Tantalus Drive has been an ongoing problem. “People as far as Pauoa Valley report hearing the tires of the drifting up there right above their valley.”
Police did not have statistics specifically for Tantalus or for drift racing. However, police received 89 calls from the public in 2017 and 113 calls in 2016 of hazardous driving in the upper Makiki, Papakolea, Tantalus and Round Top areas, according to Michelle Yu, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department.
In March 2013 the city installed nonskid sandpaper coating on eight curves to deter drifting — four on Round Top Drive and four on Tantalus Drive. The project cost about $400,000.
After a three-month period, Nouchi said, the coating had significantly deteriorated. Bicyclists, moped riders and motorcyclists complained about the integrity of the roadway and slippery conditions that were compounded by the wet weather on Tantalus.
“Within a year we saw further degradation. By three years it pretty much deteriorated away,” he said.
Vicky Dandurand-Liljestrand, who resides in lower Tantalus, said she has called police 75 to 100 times over the past five years to report racing and drifting on the roadway.
Racing and drifting occur almost daily in the area either in the afternoon or in the middle of the night, when the noise of screeching tires often wakes residents. “We’ve been trying to end it for five years,” she said.
Devastated over the injuries Altman sustained from the racing car, Dandurand-Liljestrand said, “It’s got to stop.”
