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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, October 21, 2002

State says it will appeal Sacred Falls court ruling

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i will contest a Circuit Court ruling that it was negligent in protecting the public from the 1999 Mother's Day rockslide at Sacred Falls Park that killed eight people and injured 42 others, state Attorney General Earl Anzai said yesterday.

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In a written statement, Anzai said he will appeal the Sep. 24 ruling by Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario, saying that the court "erroneously concluded that the nine warning signs in place at Sacred Falls Park at the time of the tragedy did not adequately warn park users of the nature, severity and location of the danger of falling rocks."

The word "nine" was underlined.

Del Rosario's ruling, if allowed to stand, opens the door for the case to go forward to determine damages.

Arthur Park, lawyer for the families of four of those killed and 17 of the injured people, said he thought Anzai's decision to appeal to the state supreme court was ill-advised.

"This is the same bad lawyering that got the state into this in the first place," Park said. "And now it is going to end up costing the state a lot of money."

Park said he and his clients had repeatedly offered to settle with the state for an amount that falls within the state's liability insurance coverage. The primary insurance carrier covers the state for $10 million, Park said. The first $2 million, the deductible, would be paid by the state.

Anzai did not return telephone calls after releasing his statement yesterday.

"The signs specifically warned of the danger of falling rocks," Anzai said in the statement, "... warned that falling rocks had caused death and injuries in the past and warned that if the public were to proceed past the signs, they should do so at their own risk and they should use extreme caution."

Anzai said a sign near the gate to the park warned that the "upper end of the trail and the falls area are bordered by rocky cliffs and are subject to falling rocks and rock slides." A sign near the beginning of the trail warned: "Falling rocks are dangerous. They have resulted in death and injury here."

Park said the signs, which had been approved by Anzai's office, did not rise to standards set by ANSI, the American National Standards Institute, an organization that sets safety standards for warnings.

The wording on the first sign specified by Anzai was contained within a block of text consisting of more than 200 words, Park said. ANSI says that warning signs should have no more than 10 words because the public rarely reads long informational signs and generally assumes that state parks are safe, he said.

The second sign, warning that falling rocks have resulted in death and injury "here," was 2.5 miles from the falls, Park said.

Other signs warned of flash flooding and falling rocks, Park said. ANSI standards limit one warning to each sign because, as they did in the case of Sacred Falls, people are likely to connect the two hazards.

"People saw that it was a nice, clear day," Park said. "No rain, no flash flooding, no falling rocks."

Park said the judge's decision did not base the state's liability exclusively on the signs. The fact that families and visitors were encouraged by state literature to visit the falls, where deaths had occurred before, made it essential that warning signs clearly marked the dangerous area.

Anzai said in his statement that the "state is not legally required to have perfect signage in place."

He also said that "the public has personal responsibility for their own actions and should not be allowed to ignore signs and proceed at their own risk and then sue the state for injuries."

Park said he agreed that personal responsibility should be taken.

"That's why we're not asking that the park be closed," he said. "We just think it should be opened only to experienced hikers, and children should not be allowed.

"Responsibility is a two-way street. In this case, the state is responsible and the state is not living up to its responsibility."

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.