With the holiday season fast approaching, the Hawaii Department of Transportation expressed alarm Monday over the statewide number of fatalities on Hawaii’s roadways this year.
According to a DOT statement, eight traffic-related deaths in the first 10 days of November brings the statewide death toll on Hawaii’s roads, as of Nov. 9, to 103, 25 more deaths compared to Nov. 9, 2021, year-to-date data.
“The increase in traffic deaths in 2022 is alarming,” said Ed Sniffen, HDOT’s deputy director for highways. “Twenty-five people is roughly equivalent to the number of students in a full classroom. HDOT will continue to implement proven safety improvements such as raised crosswalks and no right turns on red, but we need all drivers and riders to follow the rules of the road.”
At just over 200,000 population, Big Island has less than 1/7 of the state’s population according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but has contributed more than a third of those fatalities, 33, with the most recent death that of a still-unnamed pedestrian on Highway 11 in Keaau on Nov. 4.
That’s second behind the City and County of Honolulu’s 45 traffic deaths, but Honolulu has about five times Hawaii County’s population. Maui County had 17 traffic deaths, while Kauai County had the fewest traffic fatalities in the state, eight.
It’s also seven more fatalities than the 26 that occurred on the Big Island in all of 2022 and more than twice the 15 traffic deaths logged in 2020 — a year in which an emergency lockdown early in the novel coronavirus pandemic resulted in far fewer drivers on the island’s roads for several months.
There were 25 fatalities on the books for Hawaii Island in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
The deadliest year on Big Island roads in current memory was 2012, with 38 traffic fatalities.
According to the HDOT, 17 of the Big Island’s fatalities this year were occupants of passenger vehicles, nine were motorcyclists and six were pedestrians.
“Hawaii Police Department is deeply concerned about the amount of traffic fatalities occurring on Hawaii Island roads. Even one death is one too many,” police spokeswoman Denise Laitinen said in a Monday email.
“Of particular concern is the role drugs and impaired driving have in traffic fatalities. In 2021 there were 26 traffic fatalities on Hawaii Island roads. Impairment was a factor in 21 of the 26 fatalities, with drugs playing a role in 20 of the 21 impaired deaths.”
Laitinen said the department’s media campaign to increase awareness of and to help prevent impaired driving starts today.
“We’re launching our holiday traffic safety messaging, with the message ‘If you Feel Different, You Drive Different’ to remind motorists there is no excuse for driving impaired,” she said. “… We’re doing all we can to educate the public about the dangers of driving impaired, speeding, the importance of wearing your seat belt and motorcycle safety. Even in traffic collisions where people were not killed, people were severely injured due to not wearing a seat belt or a helmet.
“We need the public to do their part and drive responsibly.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.