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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, April 5, 2010

'We've had speeding here forever'


By John Windrow
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

A motorcyclist on Wana'ao Road was killed Saturday when she hit a parked truck. Some residents are calling for action to deter those who speed down the road.

REBECCA BREYER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Enchanted Lake residents say they have long complained about speeding on the residential road where a 34-year-old woman died Saturday when she slammed her motorcycle into a parked truck.

According to police, the woman was on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle heading north on Wana'ao Road near Pā'opua Loop in the rain about 7:55 p.m. when she slammed into a parked Toyota pickup truck. There was no one in the truck.

The woman was speeding and she was not wearing a helmet, police said.

She was pronounced dead at The Queen's Medical Center at 9:29 p.m. The medical examiner's office had not identified her yesterday.

The posted speed limit on the residential street is 25 mph.

The accident happened in front of the home of Hawila Badiyo, who said the pickup truck belongs to his mother-in-law. He said the truck was totaled.

Neighbors said the motorcyclist was closely following a van, which pulled over to let her pass. The motorcycle passed the van, lost control and crashed into the parked truck.

"We heard the bike open up, speed up, and then heard a loud crash," Badiyo said yesterday. "Then we ran outside and saw that she had hit the truck."

He said two off-duty EMS paramedics were in a car behind the motorcycle and treated her until an ambulance arrived.

Badiyo and other neighbors said the fatal crash was the third accident on the block in less than a month. Two earlier crashes took out a wall and a fire hydrant, they said.

Badiyo said the accidents involved speeding or speeding and drinking.

Police said they did not know if alcohol was involved in Saturday's accident.

Marilee West, who lives near Badiyo, said, "Every night in my bedroom, I can hear them speeding. We were listening last night. She was going so fast. Oh my God. They speed down this road all the time."

West said she would like to see some kind of traffic calming devices installed or more police enforcement.

Chuck Prentiss, chairman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, lives on the block. He said that he has been talking for four years with transportation officials about getting something done to mitigate the speeding problem on Wana'ao Road.

"When we had the big sewage system construction project going on, that really slowed down the traffic," he said. "But when the project was complete and the street was resurfaced, the problem became much worse very quickly."

He said traffic calming devices had been tried once before on a trial basis but didn't work out because of complaints from people driving through the neighborhood.

He also talked about the rash of recent accidents and said that in November a motorist crashed into a utility pole in the same area of the street. "We've had so many accidents over the years," he said. "We've had speeding here forever. Now that someone's been killed, maybe they'll finally do something."

Prentiss said transportation officials have asked him to do a new survey of residents about what measures they would like to see taken to try to reduce speeding.

He said the neighborhood board would be addressing the issue again.