Editorial
Faster response was needed on the Pali

It was a frightening situation in the hairpin curve on the Kailua side of the Pali Highway: Impaired drainage was causing water to flow across the Kailua-bound lanes, allowing moss to grow, which became slick as ice even when it wasn't raining.

When it rained it was worse.

Police reported 11 accidents since the beginning of this month, including three last Saturday night. The worst one occurred on the 11th, when a young man in a van skidded and flipped twice. He wasn't speeding; it wasn't his fault. Yet he was lucky he wasn't killed.

Needless to say, personal damage attorneys will swarm.

Police complained to The Advertiser on Sunday of the state Department of Transportation's slow response.

Wrong, said a DOT spokesperson. The department had responded the week before. By "response," it turns out, the DOT means that a work order was issued.

That may be how things happen in bureaucracies, but it's not good enough for Hawai'i's highways.

The department said the condition was repaired on Wednesday, thank goodness. That was more than three weeks after these accidents began — two weeks after the van that flipped twice.

That's unacceptable.