Crash at curve familiar sound to homeowner
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
HAKIPU'U — The sound of crashing automobiles is familiar to Gilbert Gomes, and his response is routine, as he has given aid to accident victims on numerous occasions on the corner of Johnson Road and Kamehameha Highway, where he has lived for 30 years.
At 8:48 a.m. yesterday, Gomes, 50, again heard the crunch of metal on metal. He ordered someone in his home to call 911 and went to check the scene.
The first accident of the year at the blind curve on Kamehameha at Johnson Road — a van colliding with a car making a U-turn — left seven people injured. It was the second significant accident in a week in which one of the vehicles was making a U-turn. On Sunday, two motorcycles collided with a car making a U-turn on the Joseph P. Leong Highway bypass in Hale'iwa, leaving five people injured.
The intersection of Kamehameha and Johnson, near Kualoa Ranch, is one of the most dangerous on that stretch of highway to the North Shore, with 16 accidents in 2001, including one that killed police officer Danny Padayao, 46, who was struck while investigating a traffic accident.
Police do not have statistics on the number of accidents at that intersection last year, but Gomes said it was more than 10.
"You just gotta be careful when you're out here," he said of his front lawn. Years ago, he was nearly hit when a car skidded into his yard sideways as he stood about 20 feet from the road.
Quick reflexes saved him, but nothing could be done to save the gamecocks he kept tied up in the yard when, on another occasion, a car struck a fire hydrant, causing a flood in his yard, which is below street level. Eighteen cocks drowned, valued at $200 apiece.
Yesterday the cocks were lucky, though one of the vehicles rammed through Gomes' fence and skidded around the lawn before coming to a stop without its driver.
Gomes found the driver and his 4-year-old daughter on the road, ejected from a brown Chevrolet van that was traveling toward Kualoa. Both were bloody and scraped up, he said.
A woman and her 2-year-old boy were still in the van, which barely missed several roosters leashed in the yard.
An older-model blue Mazda 626 with damage to the left front fender rested against a fire hydrant makai of Kamehameha. Police said the three teenage girls were trying to make a U-turn on Johnson Road at the intersection when the accident occurred.
The man, woman and their two children were flown to The Queen's Medical Center, where they were listed in fair condition. The teens were treated at the scene for bumps, bruises and headache, and taken to Castle Medical Center because they were minors, said Fire Department Battalion Chief Hiram Keliipio.
Gomes said a convex mirror nailed to a tree opposite Johnson Road does help. But speed is the culprit, he said, noting that the state should put up a caution light at the blind turn as a warning.
George Glock, whose son was driving the van that crashed, said the mirror is too small and gives only a limited view. He said he had seen people inch out into the road, stop, go and stop.
"It's the hesitation," said Glock, who lives in Waiahole. "If they go through one time, they would make 'em, but they just stop."
Gomes said the damage to his fence is minor, probably costing about $100 to fix. With people crashing through the fence about three times a year, he buys material cheap.
"No sense putting in something good," he said.
