Students urge driver awareness

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

As dozens of Dole Middle School students, faculty and area residents hold signs today asking drivers to slow down on busy Kamehameha IV Road in front of the school, they still remember when one of their own was hit by a car and killed just a block away.

Slater Fautua, 12, won the Hot Spots poster contest, part of a campaign by Dole Middle School and AIG Hawaii to get drivers to stop speeding near the school. The seventh-grader said he lost an uncle in a car accident. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

School counselor Calvin Misaki said everyone remembers that day.

"At the time of the accident, we were more worried about dealing with the grief," Misaki said. "Now we can work on student safety."

Dole principal Myron Monte said the problem is drivers exiting Likelike Highway onto Kamehameha IV Road, a wide four-lane street. They are already speeding and pick up steam as they head downhill.

"It's not teenagers' drag races," Monte said. "It's regular folk — the family van with kids — speeding because of a lack of awareness that they need to transition from highway to a 25-mph zone in front of a school."

The bottom line, Monte said, is "if your foot's on the gas, you're going too fast."

Today's sign-waving is part of insurance company AIG Hawai'i's Hot Spots campaign, in which students, teachers, parents, police and community members encourage motorists to slow down in a school zone.

The company started the effort after seeing an increasing number of serious accidents caused by speeding.

Robin Campaniano, AIG president and chief executive officer, said 29 traffic-related deaths so far this year — most of them involving speeding — show a problem out of control.

"It is essential that we as a community do something about this ridiculous speeding," Campaniano said. "We would rather educate the public and try to stop these things from happening to begin with. It is a logical split for us to not only take care of the people who are hurt, but to try and stop them from getting hurt in the first place. That is the best form of insurance."

"One woman in a Dodge van was bebopping along, giving a shaka sign and honking her horn saying, 'I'm with you guys,' but she was driving 45 mph," Monte said.

Hot Spots gives T-shirts to children participating in the sign-waving campaign, and a poster contest gives prizes of school supplies.

Seventh-grader Slater Fautua took first place in the contest with his patriotic poster, "United we stand, drive safe in our land."

Fautua said one of his uncles died in a car accident, and he wants drivers and children walking on busy streets to be more careful.

"A lot of people die speeding," he said. "Some don't come home anymore."

Second-place winner Brandalin Rego's poster focused on pedestrians, using crosswalk signs as a border.

"I know there have been a lot of pedestrian accidents, so sometimes I think they need more of these signs," said the eighth-grader. "When students want to cross the street, they should wait and let the cars go by first. Sometimes the kids just go."

Eighth-grader Salvador Pagaduan's third-place poster includes a detailed pencil drawing of a sportscar with a speedometer showing 140 mph.

"If you use fast cars like that on the road, you can get into accidents if you don't follow the speed limit," Pagaduan said.

Police officer Mel Andres said seeing a major crash with burning cars over and over on television can have a negative psychological effect on children, and the Hot Spots program can give them a way to talk about safety and help with healing.

"When you get the kids involved in helping us make the roadways around their schools a lot safer, that goes a long way," Andres said. "We hope the kids can bring our message of safe driving into their school and to take that positive learning home to their families."

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.