It is possible incidents such as Thursday night’s fatal, high-speed collision on Fort Weaver Road in Ewa Beach could be reduced if there was a raceway on Oahu, a state senator said.

Honolulu police reported that around 11 p.m. Thursday a 21-year-old man driving northbound on the road at a high speed lost control and struck a utility police in the center median. His vehicle rolled over and crossed into the southbound lanes, hitting another car head-on.

The 21-year-old was ejected from his vehicle and later died at a hospital, while the 53-year-old man in the other vehicle was transported in critical condition.

State Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) wasn’t sure whether Thursday night’s incident involved racing, but he said a venue for it on Oahu might reduce high-speed accidents on roadways.

“We pray for the families of the victims … but the bottom line is that we need an outlet for the racers,” he said.

Fevella, who said he used to race decades ago, hasn’t noticed more of it along Fort Weaver Road, but he has observed more “muscle” cars equipped for racing.

He said, “Most of the kids I know in my neighborhood went from having four-cylinder cars to eight-cylinder cars. … A lot of the community kids I know, they have Mustangs, Camaros, Chargers” and might not understand how capable those vehicles are.

A raceway, he said, could provide younger drivers with an opportunity to learn more about their vehicles.

Fevella also said that COVID-19 has confined most residents to their homes, especially on Oahu, where the virus has hit the hardest, which “causes people to do things they wouldn’t do.”

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said more than 200 speeding citations have been issued by officers based in Kapolei — including over a dozen “speeding and excessive speeding citations” on Fort Weaver Road — although she couldn’t say whether that was more or less than usual.

Kalaeloa Raceway Park, the last venue for racing on Oahu, closed in 2014. The revival of a raceway on Oahu has been advocated for since, most recently through the adoption of Senate Concurrent Resolution 108, which said that “auto racing has a rich history in the State, with drag racing on the island of Oahu dating back to the early 1950s.”

In 2018 the Honolulu City Council urged the city administration to facilitate the development of a raceway on the island. The Council shared Fevella’s view that a raceway would reduce instances of illegal racing, calling the issue “urgent, longstanding, and a matter of public safety.”

Penelope Parnes, vice chairwoman of the Ewa Beach Neighborhood Board, also hasn’t noticed excessive speeding or racing on the road lately.

She, like Fevella, is in support of a raceway on Oahu, but she’s not sure there’s a correlation between illegal racing and the presence of a raceway.

But she believes it would help the local economy.

“I don’t know that there’s a cause and effect. … I just think it would be a good family activity and another revenue generator, and I’m all for the state and city trying to diversify the income stream rather than just relying on tourism,” Parnes said.