Monday's hit-and-run pedestrian fatality in Makaha has spurred calls for more safety measures along the heavily used stretch of Farrington Highway, including a traffic signal at the accident site to protect people from speeding cars.

But others say drivers also need to be educated about speeding and watching for pedestrians in an area where many residents believe the only safe way to cross the road is to run, not walk.

"The traffic here is un-real," said 60-year-old Makaha Surfside condominiums resident George Wond. "They speed here like a racetrack."

It was the ninth pedestrian fatality on O'ahu this year, compared with three at this time last year.

The general manager of the Makaha Surfside yesterday began circulating a petition calling for a stoplight at the 'Alawa Place intersection, where Carl Johansen was killed.

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), also said she would ask state officials to consider a traffic signal at the intersection and make other safety improvements on Farrington Highway along the Leeward Coast.

Monday's accident underscores the need for a traffic light at 'Alawa Place, area residents said yesterday. Crossing Farrington at that spot is dangerous, they said, and the crosswalk, which covers five lanes (including the center left-turn lane), is near a bus stop, Wai'anae High School and the Makaha Surfside condos.

The speed limit is 25 mph and the intersection is in the middle of a straightaway.

OUTSIDE THE CROSSWALK

Many elderly people and high school students cross there.

Resident Regina Meleisea, who favors a traffic signal at 'Alawa, said a woman was hit by a car last year at the intersection and survived. The intersection has been the site of other accidents and near-misses, she said.

"Plenty close calls," she said.

Johansen was walking across Farrington Highway on Monday evening toward the Makaha Surfside, where he lives, when he was struck. Police said the 63-year-old Wai'anae resident was outside the crosswalk and died from head and internal injuries.

Police, who were still looking for the driver yesterday, initially said the car was a blue Honda, but yesterday said witnesses later reported it may have been a larger vehicle.

Residents have talked about the need for a traffic light at the intersection, but others have said there are already too many traffic lights in the area, said Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board Chairwoman Patty Teruya.

She said she would support a study on a traffic light there, but added that the area also needs more officers to patrol the highway and that the community needs to be educated about pedestrian safety as well.

"Farrington Highway is a nightmare," Teruya said. "People don't care. They just drive reckless and they drive fast. It always has been like that.

"You don't cross the crosswalks in Wai'anae; you run. You literally run."

There have been eight pedestrian accidents — including Monday's — over the past three years on the stretch of Farrington Highway between Ala Hema and Orange streets, said state Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa. Monday night's accident was the only fatality of the eight, he said. In four of those cases, the pedestrian was outside the crosswalk, he said. He did not have statistics specifically on the 'Alawa intersection.

The state Department of Transportation has never received a request to study a traffic signal at that intersection, Ishikawa said. But the department did try to improve safety at the crosswalk, including installing an experimental pedestrian-activated flashing crosswalk system.

It was installed in the summer of 2001, but a week later someone took the lights. A second set was installed with the lights bolted into the pavement, but soon afterward someone managed to steal those lights, he said.

Ishikawa said the Transportation Department spent $7.8 million over the past couple of years in traffic safety improvements along Farrington Highway, including adding about 100 fluorescent lime-green pedestrian /crosswalk signs from Nanakuli to Ka'ena Point State Park, restriping all crosswalks and lane markers, and installing median concrete barriers between Nanakuli and Ma'ili.

The project also included adding streetlights on the makai side of Farrington between Ala Hema and Orange streets, which includes the section in front of the Makaha Surfside.

TRAFFIC LIGHT 'ONLY WAY'

There is a traffic light about 300 feet east of 'Alawa, in front of Wai'anae High School, he said.

"We'll take a look, we'll go out and see what can be done," Ishikawa said. "But we still need the public's cooperation in following the traffic laws (and) using the crosswalk."

Hanabusa said more needs to be done to improve safety along Farrington Highway, including placing bus stops near traffic signals to discourage jaywalking.

"Each part of Farrington has a unique problem," she said. "And it's different for every single portion of it as to how we address it.

"The things that we always have to deal with on Farrington Highway is you really have a road that's servicing and doing too many things. It is a major thoroughfare, but it is the only way in and out.

"A traffic light is probably going to be the best way, and it's the only way we have right now. It is unfortunate, but it is the only way. At least it makes people aware that there are pedestrians, and it makes people aware that there is cross traffic going on."