Charges may not be filed in fatal crash
By Peter Boylan and Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writers
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Honolulu police are not saying whether they will file charges as a result of Monday night's fatal crash on the Leeward Coast that claimed four young lives, but successful prosecutions in such cases are rare.
Emma and Tou Vaesa'u hug their daughter after a shrine was erected where another daughter, Tina, was killed in a crash Monday night.
Not only do are there few convictions, but law enforcement officials say it is difficult to determine whether a crash resulted from racing or speeding.
Acting Assistant Police Chief Bryan Wauke said that to prove someone was racing, police must provide evidence that two vehicles were in a time contest and trying to outmaneuver one another.
"It is a difficult element that we have to show," Wauke said.
Police said yesterday they had taken possession of a white Honda that may have been racing with a green 2002 Nissan Altima, and are investigating what role the car may have had in Monday's crash.
The driver of the Honda, 25-year-old Peter De La Cruz of Makaha, said last night that there was no race.
"I can't stop thinking about this," he said. "I'm just sad because my good friends died right in front of my eyes and everybody is blaming me."
De La Cruz said he was going 50 mph and his friends in the Nissan went flying past him. He said the Nissan was going 100 mph or more. He said he tried to catch up but couldn't. Police said the speed limit at the collision scene is 35 mph.
After the crash, he said he went to the Nissan and saw that brothers Christopher and Joshua Mendoza were dead. "I was trying to wake 'em up," he said. But Christopher was dead, he said.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Then I looked at Josh and said, 'Josh, get up.' But he never answered me. He looked dead."
Neighbor Felix Akau crosses Farrington Highway to contribute a cross.
De La Cruz said he left to call for help, but told people to call an ambulance first because his friends might need help.
"I'm the only one that saw this thing ... ," he said. "I wasn't even involved in the accident."
He said he heard police were looking for him, and turned himself in yesterday. He said he told them what happened and was released without being arrested.
Witnesses told police the two cars were racing westbound on Farrington Highway toward Makua when the Nissan spun out of control and into the path of a 2002 Ford Explorer at 7:12 p.m.
The collision occurred 357 feet west of Mai'u'u Road. The Honda stopped briefly and left the scene, witnesses said.
It was O'ahu's second-deadliest traffic collision of the year, after the five deaths in a March 18 crash on Kamehameha Highway near Hale'iwa. Witnesses to that crash said the driver of the speeding car that swerved off the highway appeared to be chasing another car before it crashed.
According to the city prosecutor's office, only one fatal street-racing incident has resulted in a felony conviction since 1975.
DE LA CRUZ
"The kinds of cases where we have racing and fatalities are few and far between," said Lawrence Grean, director of case screening at the city prosecutor's office.
Grean, who has been prosecuting cases for 33 years, said racing is a misdemeanor if it does not lead to death. Otherwise it is a felony.
Wauke said that through Oct. 31, the department issued 399 racing citations this year, compared with 204 issued for all of 2002.
He said the department had stepped up efforts to curb speeding and highway racing, and did not plan any additional enforcement efforts because of Monday's crash.
Wauke noted that a police task force of five motorcycle officers and five officers in Camaros patrol O'ahu's roadways late at night and in the early morning, looking for racers, speeders and drunk drivers.
"We're out there. We're looking," he said.
Police can't determine whether speeding and racing are increasing or not, Wauke said, but the number of speeding citations is up significantly from last year.
A 2001 collision underscores the difficulties law enforcement officials face when trying to determine culpability in fatal racing cases, even when a driver is arrested.
More than two years after Elizabeth Kekoa died as the victim of what police say may have been freeway racing, prosecutors have yet to take action. The driver who was arrested, meanwhile, is playing college baseball in California.
Kekoa, 58, a Holy Trinity School teacher, was killed Aug. 26, 2001, when the Ford Aerostar van she was in was struck by a speeding Honda Prelude. Police said the Honda might have been racing.
Police arrested driver Nicholas Tudisco, then 18, on suspicion of second-degree negligent homicide, but released him pending further investigation. Tudisco, who was not hurt in the crash, has not been charged.
Police turned the investigation over to the prosecutor's office on Oct. 7 of this year, Grean said. "Something will eventually happen, but we can't say what or when," he said.
Local car enthusiasts said they were saddened by the latest tragedy, but stressed the difference between reckless driving and legitimate racing.
Farid Herschend, owner of the Web site Speedhawaii .com, said real racing takes place on a track.
"These guys need to start taking responsibility for their own actions. You cannot speed on public roads, especially if you don't know how to drive," Herschend said. "It is the very few that mess it up for everybody else. I race, but I prefer to do it legally, on a track."
One witness said Monday night the Nissan Altima hit two people crossing the highway, but police yesterday said no pedestrians were hit by any of the vehicles.
Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com, and Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
