Fatality spurs plans to move bus stops on Makakilo Drive
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
The state Department of Education yesterday said it is planning to relocate school bus stops on Makakilo Drive after the death of a Kapolei Middle School student who was hit Monday morning as he crossed the road to catch a school bus across from his Palehua Hale townhouse.
Nathan Curry, 15, was struck by a pickup truck at 7:12 a.m. as he crossed a section of Makakilo Drive that does not have crosswalks. He was pronounced dead at St. Francis Medical Center-West an hour later.
Curry
The nearest crosswalk to Curry's school bus pickup point is two-tenths of a mile uphill. Another crosswalk down the hill is three-tenths of a mile away.
In a written statement yesterday afternoon, the DOE said "proposed changes include moving the current Makakilo Drive bus stop closer to one of the nearby intersections, and piloting the placement of two bus stops on the downhill side of Makakilo Drive."
"I hope to God they move those bus stops right to a traffic light," said the boy's father, Christopher Ackerman, after hearing the proposed changes. "If they don't put those bus stops by (one of) the intersections, those kids will cross the road."
Ackerman said he and his wife, Dena Ackerman, walked up the hill to the crosswalk, crossed the road and continued down to a memorial for their son that had been erected near where he had been struck.
"I can tell you it's a long walk," he said.
Rep. Mark Moses, R-40th (Makakilo, Kapolei, Royal Kunia), said he had recommended that changes on the road include bus stops on the downhill lane of Makakilo Drive, and was waiting to learn more about the details of the proposed DOE changes, including how soon they could be implemented.
Meanwhile, Moses said he has invited representatives of the DOE, police department and the city Department of Transportation Services to meet at his office tomorrow morning to discuss the situation and consider ways to make Makakilo Drive safer.
"One other solution — which would take a lot of time — would be a pedestrian overpass," said Moses. "That would be the best of all worlds."
Moses stressed that building an overpass would be a city decision, because Makakilo Drive is a municipal road. He said his focus is with the role of the DOE in the incident.
"When something like this affects any of my constituents, I'm concerned. But I'm also concerned when it appears that some of the problem had to do with a school bus."
Ackerman called the overpass solution "a glorious idea.
"That's the only thing that would work. There are crosswalks up and down this drive — and drivers don't care. They will zoom right through there whether there's a child or an adult on that walk. ... The only way to save (the pedestrians) is to get them off of that road."
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
