After an unusually safe 2008, O'ahu roads have returned to their deadly pattern this year with 19 fatalities in the first three months of 2009.

There were 43 traffic fatalities in Honolulu all of last year.

This year could end up more in line with the average over the past nine years of slightly more than 70 road deaths per year.

Honolulu police have made three public pleas this year asking drivers to slow down and stop driving drunk following high-profile, high-speed, drunken driving fatalities. And Honolulu police have backed up their words with enforcement.

For the five-week period that ended April 4, police made 531 drunken driving arrests and issued 8,873 speeding citations.

While police continue to make arrests, set up drunken-driving checkpoints and speak to community groups and schools about driving safely, Honolulu police Maj. Frank Fujii said the ultimate responsibility for lowering Honolulu's death rate lies with individual drivers.

"The key to traffic safety should be on people's behavior," Fujii said. "All too often people look to law enforcement, saying, 'What are you doing about it?' The challenge is for the community. What are we all going to do about it? It's the drivers that are driving unsafely."

In addition to the 19 people who died in traffic accidents through the first three months of this year, there were four more killed so far in April.

So far this year, there have been a total of 38 traffic deaths across the Islands. Nine have involved drinking. Nearly half — 16 — involved speeding. Thirteen of the 38 killed were motorcyclists, while seven were pedestrians.

Last year saw 107 total fatalities in the state.

O'AHU FATALITIES

The past four traffic deaths in Hawai'i were all on O'ahu, including a 69-year-old pedestrian who was not in a crosswalk when she was hit near Aloha Stadium on April 9; and a 32-year-old motorcyclist who was not wearing a helmet when a sport utility vehicle turned in front of him Tuesday at the intersection of Kalaeloa Boulevard and Kauhi Street in Campbell Industrial Park.

The Honolulu medical examiner yesterday identified the motorcycle rider as Roy Bengochea, 32, of Kapolei.

While data on traffic fatalities from the state Department of Transportation are clear, the reason for 2008's low numbers is not.

Honolulu's 43 traffic deaths last year were the lowest by far since 2000. By comparison, 88 people died on O'ahu roads during the peak year of 2006.

THE FUEL FACTOR

Last year's death rate could be a statistical blip, said Dan Galanis, epidemiologist with the state Department of Health's injury prevention and control program. Or, it's possible that high gas prices kept Honolulu drivers off the roads in 2008, just like other parts of the country, Galanis said.

"It would make sense that it would happen in Hawai'i," Galanis said. "If people drive less, there are going to be fewer fatalities."

An Advertiser analysis of tax department data last year found that the total amount of gas sold by distributors fell nearly 15 percent between November 2007 and March 2008 when compared with the same period a year earlier. During that time, gas prices soared beyond $4 per gallon and gas sales dropped from 198.5 million gallons to 169.4 million gallons.

Traffic counters set up by the state Transportation Department on H-1 Freeway at the Halawa Interchange in March 2008 also showed a daily average of 124,903 vehicles traveling in both directions — nearly a 19 percent drop from the year before.

For the first four months of 2008, monthly passes for TheBus also increased 4.3 percent.

NUMBERS FLUCTUATE

Carol McNamee, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawai'i, has been looking at Hawai'i's traffic data for 25 years and believes it's possible that fewer miles driven last year correlated to fewer fatalities.

But she isn't certain.

"Because we're a small state, the numbers do go up and down," McNamee said. "Why they went down in 2008, we're not sure. We need to see how the numbers play out over the next few years."

Whatever the cause for last year's drop in traffic deaths and this year's apparent rise, McNamee wants drivers to be more aware of how their actions can prevent someone from dying.

"I hope people really think about what they're doing," she said, "whether it's drinking and driving or speeding or running red lights — all the things we know cause accidents and cause people, unfortunately, to die."