On Wednesday, the Hawaii Police Department held a “Healing Our Highways” event to remember those who lost their lives to collisions and to encourage responsible driving.
The initiative came after a 3-week-old baby girl died of her injuries from the collision last Thursday, which also killed her grandmother, Anina Masaichy, 47.
Police believe Kimo Medeiros, 43, was driving while intoxicated, speeding, and overtaking other cars on Daniel K. Inouye Highway when he allegedly slammed into the car with Masaichy and her family members.
“I ask myself, so what’s it going to take? What’s it going to take to change our behaviors on our roadways?” Hawaii Police Department interim chief Reed Mahuna questioned. “A police chief talking about how many tickets we’re going to give or how many people we’re going to arrest? Will that do it? It hasn’t so far.”
A day after last Thursday’s fatal crash, police reported seven more drivers were also speeding on the same stretch, known as Saddle Road.
One of the drivers was going more than 100 miles per hour, and another was impaired and driving more than 80 miles an hour.
“As good as enforcement is by the police force, they cannot do this alone. This is not just their job. This is a community thing,” Hawaii County deputy managing director Merrick Nishimoto said.
So far this year, Hawaii Island police issued more than 9,200 speeding citations, about 100 more than it did all of last year.
In a call to the community to drive safely, police held a sign-waving along the busy Queen Kaahumanu Highway, where Trinity Campogan’s mom, Cassandra Lynn Ellis, was killed by an intoxicated driver in 2019.
“I would never wish it on anyone else, ever,” Campogan, a high school junior, said. “It definitely did affect us a lot and have to fill in what we are missing from what she brings.”
Campogan was 10 years old when the tragic accident happened and was among several passengers in the car.
The group was headed to the beach when 25-year-old Nicholas Abarcar was driving in the opposite direction, crossed into their lane, and plowed into them.
“It was an extreme accident. It ended up with the car ending in flames,” Campogan recalled. “That unfortunately killed my mother immediately when the accident happened.”
Mahuna said police will continue to enforce traffic laws, but he is pleading with others to take responsibility for their actions on the road, adding, “It’s going to take all of us working together to drive with Aloha.”
Meantime, the Masaichy family of Kona has set up a GoFundMe page to cover funeral and medical expenses, as three of them are still hospitalized on Oahu.
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