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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 12:21 p.m., Friday, April 27, 2007

Shots damage speed indicator sign in Waimanalo

Advertiser Staff

Someone fired a weapon at an electronic speed indicator sign near Waimanalo Intermediate and Elementary School, damaging the sign and endangering residents in the area.

"It's disturbing for two reasons," said Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. "One is the sign is meant to help the school kids, and second the bullets actually went through the sign, so someone could have been hurt."

The state installed a $25,000 pair of the indicator signs last year to help slow traffic passing the school.

Sometime before yesterday the sign nearest to Bellows Air Force Station began to malfunction and when a DOT staff member investigated, he found several bullet holes that went through the sign, Ishikawa said.

"The front plate glass is solid enough against vandalism but it's not bulletproof," he said.

DOT will repair the damage, but Ishikawa didn't know what the cost would be.

He said the community had reported that the signs were slowing traffic.