By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
MAKAHA — You can hardly go anywhere on the Leeward Coast without driving along Farrington Highway.
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| Haven Valoroso sits in front of picture of Steven Valoroso Jr., who was killed in 1996 on Farrington Highway.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser |
It is the only route from Kahe Point to Kaena Point, the only road where traffic backs up and the only clear shot between the mountains and the sea.
It also is the scene of nearly every crossroad in Pauline Valoroso’s life.
On Farrington Highway, one son died in a car crash, and another son sped into a 10-year-old boy two years later, killing him.
Farrington Highway has taken Valoroso on a lifelong detour. It has led her onto a path with no road signs in a search for justice. It has made her wonder whether that road ever ends.
More than four years since the loss of her first-born, a criminal trial is about to wrap up. A string of court dates and continuances has come to this: On Thursday, the man accused of racing a Camaro in which Steven Valoroso Jr. was riding on his 19th birthday will be sentenced for causing his death.
Pauline Valoroso knows too well what it means to be on both sides of tragedy.
She is reminded of it each time she gets in her car.
"I’m sorry. I’m so sorry."
Those are the words Pauline Valoroso remembers, the words that woke her from her sleep nine days before that gloomy Christmas.
At the time she couldn’t understand why a stranger would stand at the door and keep repeating that she was sorry.
It began to sink in when she saw a crumpled car on its roof near Makaha Surfing Beach. Her son, who had been riding in the back seat, was thrown to his death when the car hit a bridge and flipped. Pauline Valoroso had insisted that police let her see the scene of the accident. She stood there and made a vow to her son.
"I promised him I would see this person, these people, own up for what happened to him," she said.
Fifty months have passed since that day, and the grieving mother is still trying to make good on her pledge.
A phone call shortly after the crash from the man accused of causing the accident didn’t bring her any closer to her goal.
Ralph E. "Eddie" Clark Jr., who pleaded guilty to first-degree negligent homicide, faces sentencing this week with a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.
The two have never had a real conversation about what happened, only angry words. Court hearings have divided their families even more.
"I want to see Eddie Clark own up to what he did to Steven," Pauline Valoroso said, "the pain that he has caused my family."
Clark said he hopes this will be the week they can move on.
"I’m sorry," said Clark, 32, a father himself. "But I’m not the devil they’re trying to make me look like."
For Clark, it is a tragedy of flawed decisions and of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
He cautions others against driving too fast now, and he won’t drive on Farrington Highway.
"It’s kind of made me realize how, in an instant, someone can lose their life," he said. "I’m trying to put a closure to that part of my life, and hopefully, by me pleading guilty, the family can finally put closure on it too. I just want to get it over with and get on with my life. Just one mistake is all it takes for anybody."
"How is the little boy? How is the little boy?"
Those are the words Pauline Valoroso asked a police officer at the scene of another crossroads, 11 days before another sad Christmas.
At the time she didn’t know she would be mourning a child she would come to call "Jerry Boy," a fifth-grader killed by her own boy.
Two years after the crash that killed Steven, her son Victor, then an 18-year-old senior at Wai‘anae High School, was behind the wheel of a 1993 Ford Ranger pickup, speeding through a red light on Farrington Highway.
Ten-year-old Jerry Kekahuna was in the crosswalk, on his way to boxing class at Wai‘anae Regional Gym with his two brothers.
Pauline Valoroso’s heart ached again.
Victor Valoroso sobbed in a courtroom and apologized.
"I’m sorry, Mrs. Kekahuna, for killing your son," he said. "I never meant to kill him and I pray that someday he can forgive me."
Daniel Kekahuna, the boy’s father, said at the time that an apology wouldn’t bring back his son. He didn’t think a one-year sentence for second-degree negligent homicide was enough.
For Pauline Valoroso, it was enough that her son "owned up" for his actions.
In the span of time of her sons’ accidents, there were 2,165 accidents on the 8.5-mile stretch of Farrington Highway that Pauline Valoroso drives daily.
Twelve of those were fatal crashes, 49 with serious injuries. Six of the fatalities were pedestrians. By comparison, the 5-mile stretch of Kalaniana‘ole Highway east of Kahala Mall had 1,404 accidents during the same period, one fatal, and 21 with serious injuries, even though it has more traffic.
Pauline Valoroso says she hopes her tragedies can serve as reminders to get people to slow down and pay attention.
Driving on Farrington, she notices the small crosses and Hawaiian flags that dot the highway as makeshift memorials.
She said she can put the bad memories aside and still be awed by the beauty of the light hitting the water along the coast.
The grieving mother doesn’t want pity, and she doesn’t want her life to be measured by roadblocks.
Farrington Highway is the scene of nearly all of her crossroads, but it also is the road home.
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