Police promise crackdown on road racers
| • | 'I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye' |
By Brandon Masuoka and Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writers
Honolulu's city prosecutor and police yesterday vowed to crack down on drivers who take part in highway racing in the wake of Sunday's collision that killed a teacher on her way home to Hawai'i Kai.
Police said Nicholas Tudisco may have been involved with other drivers in a race on the H-1 Freeway just before the 4:17 a.m. collision near Kaimuki. Tudisco's black Honda Prelude may have been going up to 100 mph when he lost control near the 6th Avenue off-ramp, bounced off the median and swerved into a 1994 Aerostar van, propelling it into a guardrail, police said.
Colleagues remember Elizabeth Kekoa as a humble person "who never had a bad thing to say about anybody."
The collision killed Elizabeth Kekoa, a 58-year-old Holy Trinity teacher and injured her husband and 79-year-old mother. The collision's aftermath caused a massive traffic jam as police closed the H-1 Freeway for nine hours to investigate.
Tudisco, a Saint Louis School graduate and former prep all-star baseball player, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree negligent homicide and released at 7:45 p.m. Sunday night, police said. Tudisco has not been charged, police said.
Police Traffic Division commander Maj. Robert Prasser said some of the cars on H-1 that morning may have belonged to a road racing club. He said at least one witness has said that a group of cars blocked traffic behind them to allow two cars to race Sunday.
He said an investigation into Sunday's accident is continuing and more arrests are possible.
Police seek help
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Police are seeking additional witnesses to Sunday's traffic fatality and are asking witnesses to call the Traffic Division at 529-3499, or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
Prasser also said he is developing a plan to involve several police divisions and a police helicopter to watch for road racers. He also asked the public to report any racing activity.
"If this was a young gang going out and engaging in dangerous behavior where maybe one person a week was getting killed, the public would be enraged. They wouldn't stand for it," Prasser said. "And frankly, that's the same type of public support that we need on this road racing issue."
Yesterday, Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle also vowed to get tough on racers and drivers who help clear the streets for racers.
"We look at any type of racing as an exceptionally serious offense that always carries with it the grave potential of killing some innocent, responsible driver or pedestrian," Carlisle said. "And if people are accomplices, aiding and abetting or participating in racing, even if they are not the person that caused the death, we'll look at them with the accomplice liability statute and see if it applies."
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Under state law, a person convicted as an accomplice faces the same maximum penalty as the principal.
A lei adorns a figure of the Virgin Mary in the classroom where Elizabeth Kekoa taught religion to third- and fourth-graders at Holy Trinity School. Kekoa was killed Sunday in a collision on the H-1 Freeway.
Carlisle said he hoped his office could help curb street racing and added that his office will not be lenient on motorists who are charged with causing a traffic fatality.
"If somebody engages in racing and kills someone, we're looking to convict them under the most serious offense that would apply under the facts and circumstances of the case under the law," Carlisle said.
Prasser said he also will seek legislation to allow police to take possession of a car if it is involved in road racing or a traffic fatality. He said this would be similar to forfeiture laws where property used or obtained in the commission of a drug crime can be confiscated and sold at auction.
Prasser said citations and arrests have not cut down on speeding. In 1999, he said, police issued 57,000 speeding citations, compared with 33,000 in 1996.
"I would love to see some type of law where we could take these overpowered cars from these relatively young people and put a little sting there," he said.
Prasser said at least one road racing club has its own Web site where "they actively brag about what they're going to do."
Keely Nakatsu photo
Police said there was a racing incident on the Kalani'anaole Highway near Kalani High School less than three miles from the H-1 collision scene. Police caught three Hondas racing westbound on Kalaniana'ole Highway at 10 p.m. Saturday, said Lt. Todd Oba of the East Honolulu District.
Elizabeth Kekoa, second from right, celebrated her son's graduation last year. Celebrating the occasion with her were, from left, husband Wally, son Kristopher, mother Rose Davis and daughter Kristen.
Oba said an officer noticed traffic backing up near Kalani High School and then saw four Hondas speed off. The officer radioed ahead and police caught three of the four Hondas speeding, Oba said.
Last week, East Honolulu police working the night shift handed out 150 hazardous driving citations and 82 speeding citations, Oba said.
"That's about the norm," Oba said. "We have about 135 to 200 hazardous driving violations a week. As for speeding, we get a low of 60 to high of 150 a week. This is from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. on a weekly basis."
Prasser said 17 of the 54 traffic fatalities so far this year involved a speeding car.
Prasser apologized yesterday for police taking nine hours to investigate the fatal collision on H-1 but said officers were collecting evidence from four lanes of traffic.
"I apologize on behalf of the department for the nine-hour lane closure," Prasser said. "I think we could have done a better job as far as opening that road. But what you have to understand is we had a very complicated scene."
