Posted on: Tuesday, February 17, 2004

EDITORIAL
Jaywalking is fatal in some parts of town

If you don't believe O'ahu is facing a road-safety crisis, consider last week's traffic fatalities.

Friday, four people were killed and two injured when two speeding cars slammed into the rear of a flat-bed truck on H-1 Freeway near the Waipahu offramp. The car drivers, both soldiers, appear to have been racing.

Thursday evening, a 30-year-old 'Aiea man was fatally struck by a pickup truck while jaywalking across the Moanalua Freeway. The truck's driver was arrested for driving under the influence.

And in two separate accidents Wednesday and Tuesday near the Pearlridge Center, two pedestrians were struck and killed while jaywalking across the Kamehameha Highway.

Meanwhile, various bills intended to stiffen penalties for racing and driving under the influence are stalling at a time when you'd expect to see politicians and their constituents calling for tougher laws.

That said, lawmakers have a point when they say we should do a better job at enforcing the laws already on the books. Perhaps we need more cops on the jaywalking patrol.

Police say jaywalking along the half-mile stretch between Honomanu Street and Lipoa Place is "like playing Russian roulette" because of the wide highway and the fast-moving traffic.

Some have suggested that neighboring businesses help pay for a pedestrian bridge with an elevator. But there's no guarantee that folks will use the pedestrian bridge. Both jaywalking victims this week were just a few hundred feet from a crosswalk.

If a pedestrian bridge is an exercise in futility, perhaps we need to start thinking about placing barriers between the sidewalk and highway to stop pedestrians from darting out into the road.

Granted, no one wants to be corralled into the sidewalk. But surely we must do something to save the community from more of these senseless tragedies.