While helping drivers, Freeway Service Patrol faces traffic dangers

Barbara Farr had seen the state Department of Transportation’s Freeway Serv­ice Patrol trucks plenty of times from her 2010 Volvo V50 wagon, but never needed their services until her tire blew out on the westbound H-1 freeway Tuesday morning.

“I hit something and it went immediately flat,” forcing her to block traffic and turn on her blinkers, Farr, 52, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. FSP operator David-Ray Ramos pulled up behind to block oncoming traffic, took out a jack and went to work replacing the wagon’s front, driver’s side tire while dozens of cars blew past.

Ramos’ boss, former Honolulu Police Department Maj. Kurt Kendro, once led HPD’s traffic division. To provide an extra layer of safety Tuesday, Kendro parked behind Ramos and used his own FSP truck to further block traffic in the far right lane — an area with no shoulder lane.

The FSP’s 22 drivers patrol 29 miles of the H-1 freeway and H-2 freeway up to Ka Uka Boulevard in 12 tow trucks, Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

FSP started patrolling the H-1 and H-2 freeways in June 2009, and since then through June 30, operators have changed 17,425 flat tires — their most requested service. Everything done to assist drivers with disabled vehicles is free, including providing up to two gallons of gas.

And the work is dangerous.

Ramos said he has a “close call” with drivers every day. “I can feel the brush” of traffic, he said.

Across the country this is “National Traffic Incident Response” week, and the state DOT wants drivers to be aware of the FSP’s services but also cognizant of state law that requires them to move at least one lane away from first responders such as the FSP as they work. When moving into another lane isn’t possible, drivers are required to slow down to a “reasonable speed.”

The so-called move-over law came in the wake of the 2012 death of HPD officer Garret Davis, 28, who was killed in a fiery crash after he pulled over on the H-1 freeway in Aiea to help a driver change a flat tire, just as Ramos does every day.

The year before Davis was killed, HPD officer Eric Fontes, 45, was hit from behind and killed by a sleepy driver at a traffic stop near Ko Olina Resort.

Kendro, who was still with HPD at the time, joined law enforcement officials across the state in urging the Legislature to enact the move-over law, which then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed in July 2012.

Farr was all by herself Tuesday morning when she came to a stop in the far right-hand lane of the westbound H-1. She was on her cellphone trying to describe her location to a Geico representative on the mainland when Ramos arrived in his Ford F-450 Super Duty truck.

Until then Farr was relying on alert drivers to see her blinkers and get out of her lane of traffic.

“It was kind of scary,” she said.

The stretch of H-1 is the busiest in the state and sees 240,000 vehicles in a 24-hour period, DOT spokesman Tim Sakahara said.

To increase capacity, the DOT removed the old shoulder lane and created another lane of traffic, which leaves little room for FSP drivers to get motorists out of harm’s way.

“There is no shoulder here,” Kendro said as vehicles whirred by. “It’s really dangerous.”

Moments later Ramos was the first to arrive at the scene of a collision between George Oki’s 2005 Toyota Matrix and Sefo Moananu’s 2017 GMC Canyon truck on the westbound H-1 before the Waipahu offramp.

Oki’s Matrix clearly received the bulk of the damage. The entire front end was smashed in, and fluids poured onto the H-1.

“One minute, everything OK,” said Oki, 75, of Aiea. “Next thing, all bus’ up — in just one second.”

Or as Moananu, 22, of Waipahu explained from his perspective:

“I was braking, and boom!”

The Honolulu Fire Department’s Engine 20 out of Pearl City rolled up and blocked three lanes of traffic as two HPD officers arrived to make a report, followed by a pair of paramedics.

Kendro said FSP, HPD, HFD and paramedics have started training together on “traffic incident management.”

The goal is to have the agencies improve roadway safety for first responders — while quickly getting disabled motorists out of the way to get traffic moving quickly.

“Our thing is to get off the highway as soon as we can to clear the congestion,” Kendro said. “That’s our goal.”