Plaintiffs say state knew of dangers at Sacred Falls

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

A former state parks official said in court yesterday that he is not aware of any other state park in the nation that invites park visitors to hike into a deep canyon with high cliffs where the risk of being injured by falling rocks is comparable to Sacred Falls.

Richard Kanayama, state parks assistant administrator from 1987 to 1993 who filed a report just days after a 4-year-old girl was killed by falling rocks in 1982 at Sacred Falls, was the first witness to testify in a trial involving the May 9, 1999, rock fall at the once-popular Windward site that killed eight people and injured 50 others in one of the worst natural disasters in state history.

The park has been closed since then.

The suit against the state is by almost 30 people who were either injured or who are relatives of those who were injured or killed.

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 the1999 Mother's Day tragedy, but did not adequately warn the public about the dangers and was negligent in operating the park.

If they prevail in the first phase of the trial to determine whether the state is liable for the deaths and injuries, the plaintiffs will be seeking millions of dollars in damages in the second phase of the trial, 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.

Kanayama acknowledged that he proposed three alternatives in the report he submitted to Department of Land and Natural Resources officials after the 1982 incident. One was to permanently close the uppermost quarter-mile of the trail nearest the waterfall where the rock fall danger is the greatest. Another of the options was to close the trial during times of high winds or heavy rains and following earthquakes.

The third option, Kanayama said, was to post numerous signs warning park users of the rock fall risk. He said he recommended a combination of two alternatives: shutting down the trail in adverse weather and posting warning signs.

But Kanayama said he did not advocate closing the trail.

"That was mainly because the falls are the main attraction of the park. Without (being able to hike to) the falls, the public would not have much reason to use the trail," Kanayama said.

In response to a series of questions from Remillard, Kanayama said he visited the falls after the 1982 fatal rock fall but could not determine the extent of the rock fall, never considered asking a geologist on the DLNR staff to do a hazard evaluation and did not interview members of the dead girl's family or workers who attempted to rescue her.

Kanayama said there was little or no effort to determine the risk in allowing the public to continue to visit Sacred Falls.

"As far as we knew, it was the first and only incident where a rock fall had caused injury and or death to a park visitor," Kanayama said. "I'm not sure why we didn't make an assessment (of the risks), but we didn't."

Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario is presiding over the non-jury trial. The liability phase of the trial is expected to take up to six weeks.