Crash victim's father doubts son was racing

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

The father of one of four people killed in a fiery H-1 accident Friday questioned yesterday whether his son and another driver had adequate warning that they were approaching a slower moving truck working on the zipper lane.

Bill Bordwell Jr. of Rotterdam, N.Y., also said he doubted that his son had been racing before the collision.

"This is a boy who was quiet, who played football and hockey and Little League," Bordwell said. "He was a Boy Scout. In no way was he a wild kid who was into racing."

Spc. Jason Bordwell, 22, was driving one of two cars that slammed into the back of the truck. The wrecked vehicles erupted into flames, and Bordwell, two other soldiers and a state contract worker died. A fourth soldier and the truck's driver were injured.

Witnesses said the cars that struck the truck during the predawn hours had been speeding. Police are investigating whether racing was a factor.

"Here in New York," Bordwell said, "when they put down those commuter cones, they have a car behind (the truck) with a sign lit up like Las Vegas that says: Workmen Ahead.

"And where was the yellow bubble light on the roof?"

Managers at Safety Systems Hawai'i Inc., the state's contractor, did not return calls last night to comment on the truck's safety systems.

Scott Ishikawa, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the truck was inspecting the zipper lane barrier for debris, not putting down cones in the area where the crash occurred.

"The company said that the truck was driving at normal speed," Ishikawa said, "but I'm not sure what that speed was."

Ishikawa said the truck had two rear flashers, "similar to the flashers on the bottom of a vehicle, but on the upper part of the truck."

"The company decides what traffic control measures they want to implement," Ishikawa said. "When we do pothole patching, we do have a bumper car following behind. It has directional arrows and rear flashers to let people know there is something up ahead."

Ishikawa said a state worker who had just finished patching potholes before the crash spoke to the driver and passenger of the contract truck as it passed, then later saw the two cars speeding past in the same direction.

"He said they were going very fast," Ishikawa said.

Bordwell said Jason joined the Army in 1999, signing up as a high school junior and leaving for training shortly after graduation.

He wanted to learn computer programming, Bordwell said, and thought the training and experience offered by the Army would be the best way to enter the field.

"He was not some wild kid who didn't have his head on straight," Bordwell said.

Jason excelled in his field and was building an impressive résumé, Bordwell said. He said his son was pleased when he was sent to Hawai'i for his first permanent assignment.

He married another soldier and left behind a son, Jordan, named for Jason's hero, Michael Jordan.

Bordwell said that while visiting Hawai'i last summer, he attended Jordan's first birthday lu'au in July.

Jason would have gone to Afghanistan this spring. In addition to his wife, child and father, he left his mother, Randi Jean Bordwell; a younger brother, Brenton; and an older brother, William A. Bordwell III.

Authorities said the two men who were injured in the crash, Spc. Carlos Molestina-Arteaga, Bordwell's passenger, and the truck's driver, Carl Koonce III, were both released from the hospital over the weekend.

Mariano Salangdron Sr., a passenger in the truck, was killed.

Sgt. Shanta Bridges, 26, a native of McComb, Miss., was killed in one of the cars, as was another soldier whose name is still being withheld by military officials while they work to contact family members.

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.