An early morning traffic accident in Wai'anae closed Farrington Highway, forcing police to divert townbound traffic onto several side streets. Another accident on Kalaniana'ole Highway backed up traffic coming from East O'ahu, police said.

The biggest culprit probably was the heavy rain showers that slowed freeway traffic to a crawl in the 'Aiea-Pearl City area during the morning rush hour, said Jason Yotsuda, who monitors traffic for KSSK radio at the city's Traffic Management Center.

"That caused several cars to stall, backing up traffic real early and it ended up being a lot heavier than usual," he said.