Updated at 12:47 p.m., Friday, November 1, 2002
Pileup goes to insurers
By Scott Ishikawa, Mike Gordon and Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writers
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| Deyton Stone, owner of Stoneridge Recoveries, inspects the damage to one of the vehicles hauled from the scene of yesterday’s pileup on the H-1. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
“It’s going to be a real nightmare and challenge for insurance companies,” said Tim Dayton, general manager of GEICO Insurance in Hawai‘i. “There are many, many issues and pieces that need to come together.”
The collisions began at 8:10 a.m. in the eastbound lanes near the Pearl City/Waimalu off-ramp. No one was seriously injured.
Basically, Dayton said it’s a case-by-case procedure. Eight of the 42 drivers, for example, have auto insurance with GEICO, he added.
“Let’s say you were driving a car that collided with another car in front of you and someone hit you from behind,” Dayton said. “Are you responsible for damage to your own car and the one in front of you?”
That’s what the insurance companies will be dealing with. “This is much more common on the Mainland in icy situations but in my 14 years here, we’ve never had to deal with anything of this magnitude that I know of,” Dayton said.
Nelson Fujio, owner of Auto Fender Clinic in Kaka‘ako, said determining fault for every single collision yesterday will present a “domino effect” that will take a lot of effort to unravel. “It’s clear when you can determine who started the chain reaction but this one is going to be a nightmare,” Fujio said.
Property damage rather than medical will be the key issue since most people have medical insurance to cover injuries, Dayton noted.
“The big issue is going to be car repair,” he said. “It’s easier to reach an agreement when two or three cars are involved but 42 will be difficult to piece together. Out of the 42, you can count on the fact that someone won’t have insurance or is underinsured.”
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| Traffic slowed to a crawl yesterday near a 42-car pileup on the eastbound H-1 Freeway between the Leeward Community College and Waimalu off-ramps. Four lanes were blocked, delaying thousands of motorists. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Dayton recommends that drivers who had vehicles damaged in the pileup should pay the deductible and get the repair work done using their own insurance to avoid predicted delays.
“People always want the other person to pay for the repair work but this is going to be a long, complicated issue,” he said. “It’s going to take too long. My advice is let the insurance companies work on it and hassle it out. The system will work it out.”
Those motorists who don’t have collision insurance are going to have a big problem, especially if they are responsible for another car’s damage.
Dayton expects it will take a couple of months to resolve the issue.
Police, meanwhile, took driver statements from 42 drivers and are not involved in determining who’s at fault because there’s no crime, said Pearl City Patrol District commander Maj. Bryan Wauke.
Stoneridge Recoveries towed 17 cars from the scene. Two vehicles were towed to their owner’s home and 15 were still at the company’s yard on Kamehameha Highway this morning.
Wauke said rainy weather and driver inattention probably contributed to the massive pileup. “Thank goodness no one was killed, that was the main thing,” Wauke said.
Paramedics took eight people to various hospitals, said Ron Yamada, a district chief with the city’s Emergency Medical Services. All were treated and released. Paramedics reported mostly neck and back injuries.
Two pregnant women were taken to Kapi‘olani Medical Center at Pali Momi for observation and released yesterday afternoon. Three women taken to Kuakini Medical Center were treated and released, as were two men and a woman taken to St. Francis Medical Center.
The Zipper lane, far right lane and shoulder lane of the roadway remained open after the accidents. By 11 a.m. all H-1 eastbound lanes except for two were reopened.
Yesterday’s accidents were in the same area of another big pileup in November 2000 that involved 10 vehicles. One man was killed and eight others injured, and traffic was backed up for miles.
Delivery driver Clem Palafox of Pacific Jobbers Warehouse said he was stuck in the H-1 traffic near Waipahu for more than an hour before finally getting by the accident scene.
“When I was driving the other direction earlier, I was hoping they would have it all cleared up when I headed back,” Palafox said. “I wish I could have waited until the traffic died down, but I got deliveries to make,” Palafox said.
Advertiser staff writer Will Hoover contributed to this report.
