After years of denying researchers, reporters and others access to Hawai'i crash data, the state said yesterday it intends to make available its massive volume of traffic accident information dating to 1986, a move that analysts say could help make Island roads safer.

The state's decision to release the information to The Advertiser in mid-April comes on the heels of a three-part Advertiser series in which the Department of Transportation's stinginess with crash data, even restricting access to those within the traffic-safety community, came under heavy criticism.

A team of experts who came to Hawai'i in October to evaluate the state's traffic records system criticized the DOT, saying the agency restricted access so severely that research designed to save lives has been hampered.

Local and national experts say comprehensive, accurate crash information is critical to doing thorough traffic-safety studies, which can be used to help improve dangerous roads or refine strategies for tackling persistent problems, such as pedestrian safety, a major concern on O'ahu.

"I think it's good news that they plan to release this information," said University of Hawai'i professor Karl Kim, editor of a national journal on accident analysis and prevention. "This is a positive sign."

Despite the Transportation Department's repeated denials of access to data, DOT interim Director Barry Fukunaga and Deputy Director Brennon Morioka told The Advertiser yesterday the agency's policy has been mischaracterized and questioned the accuracy of the newspaper series. No one from the state challenged the series after it ran last month.

The agency's policy, Fukunaga said, is to release data as long as personal information and national security interests are not compromised.

Fukunaka's position differs considerably from the position the agency took just a few weeks ago in denying The Advertiser access to a report on locations with a high number of accidents. In 2004, the department denied an Advertiser request for two years of crash data and took its arguments to the Office of Information Practices, the state agency that oversees Hawai'i's open-government laws.

LAWSUITS FEARED

The DOT maintained that the information was not public and would expose the state to greater liability in traffic-injury lawsuits if released.

But when OIP ruled that the information was public, the DOT said the newspaper would have to pay the estimated $20,000 for the software needed for the database consultant to delete personal confidential information from the files. The OIP agreed with that position.

Fukunaga yesterday said the department decided to cover the cost — now pegged at about $16,000 — for the consultant to redact personal information from cases dating to 1986, representing the entire database, and provide the information in electronic form to The Advertiser. The database has details on nearly 400,000 major accidents through at least 2004.

According to DOT officials, the decision to release information was made because the changes the consultant intends to make will help the department more easily retrieve information from the database for internal purposes and more easily respond to outside requests.

That is seen by the department as an interim measure until it is able to upgrade the entire database system, which is run on antiquated computers.

The department has a request pending before the Legislature for $250,000 to upgrade the system.

DIFFERENT TAKE

With some limited exceptions, the agency has been especially guarded about releasing information on specific sites where accidents have occurred — the very type of information plaintiff lawyers seek in trying to prove government negligence in traffic-injury cases.

"Release of crash data to the public is limited to general data only and excludes site-specific data," the team of experts noted in its October 2006 report on behalf of the federal government.

Asked about the liability concerns that the DOT has raised repeatedly in the past in explaining why access to data was being denied, Fukunaga yesterday presented a different take.

"From my standpoint, I don't think that's an issue," he said, adding that if the information is public, it should be released.

Fukunaga and Morioka said the department has not changed its position in the wake of the series. They were unable, however, to reconcile what they said yesterday with the agency's repeated practices and statements of the past.

Fukunaga did say he recently provided his staff with clarification about the release of data, noting that the department lacked a written policy. He also said that Alvin Takeshita, the DOT official who responded to the newspaper's questions, worked directly with the Attorney General's Office in drafting the answers and may have looked at the questions in a "narrow view."

Fukunaga said he did not review the responses before they were submitted to the newspaper.

Sen. Les Ihara, a longtime advocate of open government, applauded the DOT decision but said the agency appears to be doing damage control, given recent criticism over its data practices.

Ihara said the agency's insistence that releasing information didn't mark a change in policy doesn't match what the agency has done to date.

"It's spin," Ihara said. "The facts are the facts."

Reach Rob Perez at rperez@honoluluadvertiser.com.