Posted at 1:07 p.m., Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Traffic fatalities up 19 percent on O'ahu
Advertiser Staff
Nine crashes resulting in multiple deaths are reflected in a 19 percent increase in traffic fatalities on O'ahu this year.The fatality count as of today stands at 81 as compared to 68 on this date in 2002.
The total includes 68-year-old Frank Muscat, who died Wednesday at The Queen’s Medical Center. Muscat was injured when his moped was struck Dec. 15 on Young Street by a car. The driver of the car was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
Lt. Bennett Martin, supervisor of Honolulu police vehicular homicide investigations, said there have been 67 fatal crashes this year, one less than 2002. However, a total of 23 people have died in nine crashes this year, including five in March when a car veered off Kamehameha Highway and struck a tree near Hale'iwa and four in head-on collision earlier this month on Farrington Highway in Makaha.
Martin has not received official numbers yet but estimated alcohol and/or speeding will be a factor at least 50 percent of the fatal cases.
