Take care on roads this holiday season

Last week, a 38-year-old man died after he was struck by a vehicle at a Likelike Highway intersection in Kalihi, marking the 27th pedestrian fatality on Oahu compared to nine pedestrian deaths at the same time last year. The accident also was the island’s 61st traffic-related fatality, compared to 42 at the same time last year. Pedestrians and motorists should take extra care on roadways in the next few weeks. In addition to holiday-season hustle and bustle, visibility during early morning and evening hours could surface as a roadway issue since we’ll get shorter stretches of daylight until the winter solstice, on Dec. 21.

Kilauea remains quiet, for now

Three months have passed without volcanic activity on Kilauea’s lower East Rift Zone. The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program classifies this 90-day point as the end of continuous volcanic activity. Sounds good on paper. Still, Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim declared last week the state of emergency is not yet over.

We have to side with Kim’s cautious take on the matter. While there’s a low chance of imminent eruption, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory points out that the area continues to experience low-level earthquakes, and underground magma continues to flow into the middle area of the rift zone.