Posted on: Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Husband of victim recounts deadly day at Sacred Falls

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A Canadian man whose wife was killed and son severely injured during a rock fall at Sacred Falls state park on May 9, 1999, testified in Circuit Court yesterday that he would not have taken his family to see the falls had he been warned of the dangers or told that the park caretaker had been ordered to wear a hard hat at all times to address the danger of falling rocks.

Geza Szenes, 45, a computer systems analyst from Alberta, said he and his family had finished viewing the falls with another couple and their children, and were leaving when he heard a large "crack" similar to a gunshot.

"Almost immediately, that was followed by a loud rumbling, like a freight train going by or a helicopter flying overhead," Szenes said.

He looked up to see if a helicopter had passed above, and by the time he looked down he could see that the dirt and rocks had already fallen, he said.

"I heard someone yell, 'Rock fall' or 'Rock slide.' "

As the dirt and rocks cascaded down, Szenes remembered pressing his face against the canyon wall trying to escape the hail of boulders.

"All of the sudden it stopped, and there was just silence," Szenes said.

His wife, Teri Zerebeski, 42, a registered nurse and photography buff who had documented the family's hike up to the falls that day, had been catastrophically injured and died at the scene. Their son Colin, who was 7 at the time, suffered an open skull fracture but survived.

Szenes is one of almost 30 people who are suing the state in what was one of the worst natural disasters in Hawai'i history. Eight were killed and 50 were injured.

The plaintiffs in the case, who are represented by Honolulu attorneys Laurent Remillard and Arthur Park, claim the state knew about the potential for a deadly rockfall long before the 1999 Mother's Day tragedy, but did not adequately warn the public about the dangers and was negligent in operating the park, which has been closed since the tragedy.

If the state is found liable in the first phase of the trial, the plaintiffs will be seeking millions of dollars in damages in the second phase, Remillard said.

The state, which is being represented by Randall Yamamoto and James Kawashima, is expected to argue that rock falls are unpredictable, that signs adequately warned visitors of the danger and that park-users assumed the risk of injury by entering the park.

Szenes yesterday said he stopped to talk to two men wearing "Hawaiian Wilderness Society" T-shirts who were stationed at a booth near the trailhead. He said one of the men told him the only safety concern dealt with flash floods, but there had been no significant rainfall in the area for months and none was forecast that day.

He and his family were experienced hikers, Szenes said, having been on hikes numerous times through mountainous areas in Canada, but never hiked through areas where park users were warned of rock fall hazards.

Szenes said he expected the hike to Sacred Falls would be safe because the trail was part of a state park, was well maintained and appeared to be heavily used.

In response to a series of questions from Kawashima, Szenes said that large rocks and boulders in the stream bed leading up to the falls didn't cause him to question where the rocks had come from, and that he didn't recall seeing any signs warning park users about falling rocks.

Szenes said the only warning sign he recalled seeing the day of the accident was one that said the flash flood emergency system was out of order.