Police Beat
Advertiser Staff
Traffic fatalities up 19 percent on O'ahu
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 yesterday stood at 81 compared with 68 on this date in 2002.
The total includes 68-year-old Frank Muscat, who died last 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 a head-on collision this month on Farrington Highway in Makaha.
Martin has not received official numbers yet but estimated alcohol and/or speeding will be a factor in at least 50 percent of the fatal cases.
Victim identified in Kona fatality
HILO, Hawai'i — Police identified the victim of a fatal car crash Saturday on the Hawai'i Belt Road as Robert Marion Haile, 40, of Honoka'a.
Police said Haile was driving toward Waimea at about 8:30 pm. when his car ran off the road near the 21-mile marker in Pu'uanahulu, North Kona. The car overturned and plunged down an 80-foot embankment. Haile was pronounced dead about five hours later at Kona Community Hospital.
Suspect charged in Mililani beating
Police charged Marcus Dean Mejia, 27, of Mililani, with first-degree assault in the beating of his former girlfriend last week.
Mejia was arraigned Monday at District Court. He is being held in lieu of $20,000 bail.
Mejia is accused of beating a 21-year-old woman in his apartment on Dec. 22. The woman was treated at The Queen's Medical Center for internal head injuries, a broken nose and ruptured eardrum, police said.
Drunken driving arrests increase
HILO — Big Island police arrested 33 motorists for suspicion of drunken driving from Dec. 22 through Sunday. Five of the drivers arrested were involved in traffic collisions and four were minors, police said.
So far this year, police have arrested 1,057 motorists for driving under the influence of alcohol, a 22 percent increase from 2002.
On O'ahu, police made 2,069 DUI arrests from January through November as compared to 2,017 for the same period in 2002, Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Jean Motoyama said.
