Posted on: Thursday, December 23, 2004

EDITORIAL
Crash review policy needs a fresh look

Compared to the heartbreak involved in any serious auto accident, the inconvenience faced by those whose travel is interrupted or detoured is inconsequential.

So the immediate focus of the community after a fatal accident Monday on the H-1 Freeway was properly on the loss of life and its cause.

In Monday's incident, police traffic investigators closed four of the five lanes on the freeway for three hours, backing up westbound traffic as far as downtown Honolulu. Side streets also were gridlocked as a result.

Yet police at the scene were quickly able to attribute the accident to a woman who was speeding in the far right lane when she swerved to avoid stopped traffic, hitting a van that then hit a Jeep.

How much more information is needed, and for what purpose? Certainly closure for families of persons killed or injured is a consideration. But to what extent is this an exercise in satisfying the needs of lawyers and insurance companies?

The police may have no economic interest in putting particular emphasis on reopening some or all of the freeway to traffic. But there is an economic cost for the hundreds of thousands who are stuck in traffic or diverted.

In an increasingly congested Honolulu, it is time for the HPD to take a new look at policies for such investigations.

In most Mainland jurisdictions, getting traffic moving again is a high priority. It should be an even higher priority here: There's a profusion of alternate routes available in most Mainland cities, but drivers here are largely confined to the H-1 corridor, particularly during daily commutes.

While everyone wants and expects these investigations to be thorough, there also needs to be a balancing of equities. HPD says these investigations are a "necessary inconvenience." The assumptions underlying that statement need fresh examination.