Alameda asks state for help in wake of recent traffic deaths – West Hawaii Today

Mayor Kimo Alameda on Monday sent a letter to Gov. Josh Green requesting assistance from the state to improve traffic safety on Hawaii Island.

“This is a public safety emergency for our community,” Alameda said Tuesday in a statement. “We are asking the state to work with the county on urgent messaging, enforcement, engineering and education strategies to prevent more lives from being lost on Saddle Road and other highways.”

As of Tuesday, there had been 13 traffic fatalities in 2026 on Hawaii Island roads, including eight in the past two weeks. That includes two recent double-fatalities on Daniel K. Inouye Highway, also known as Saddle Road.

In his letter to Green, Alameda said his motivation for writing it is his “deep concern about the recent surge in traffic fatalities on Daniel K. Inouye Highway.”

“The frequency and severity of these crashes compel urgent action to prevent further loss of life,” the mayor wrote.

Alameda’s letter to Green referred to “the tragic loss of our mutual friend,” Dr. Judith Fitzgerald, an emergency room physician at Hilo Benioff Medical Center who was killed in a head-on collision on the DKI Highway last Christmas Eve.

“I recently convened a meeting with our police chief, fire chief and several county leaders to identify practical near-term and longer-term safety measures,” Alameda wrote.

Alameda requested the state assist with: installation of solar-powered radar signs to encourage speed compliance; posting of signage near known crash hot spots to discourage risky passing maneuvers; inspections, and if necessary, repairs to drainage and pavement conditions at mile markers 13-16 and 44-47 on DKI Highway to reduce the risk of hydroplaning; addition of signs encouraging slower vehicles to keep to the right lane and marked turnouts for slower vehicles; and installation of rumble strips and reflective delineators in high-risk stretches of the highway until permanent improvements can be made.

The most recent double-fatal on DKI Highway, which occurred Friday afternoon, killed 29-year-old Troy Rasse of Pahoa and 24-year-old Jadelyn Cariaga of Hilo, who were described in social media as a couple recently engaged to be married.

Rasse and Cariaga died when the driver of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck they were passengers in lost control while negotiating a curve on the wet highway near the 13-mile marker, crossed the centerline, and collided head-on with a Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck towing a trailer carrying a mini-excavator.

There were two more fatal traffic incidents Friday and Monday.

On Friday night, a male pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run on Highway 130 near Orchidland Drive in Puna. The victim, whom police say was struck by multiple vehicles, hasn’t yet been publicly identified.

And a motorcycle rider, identified as 58-year-old Max Mattos of Kurtistown, lost his life Monday afternoon after reportedly crashing into a Tesla SUV at a high rate of speed on 12th Avenue in Hawaiian Paradise Park.

The concern over the uptick in traffic deaths also motivated Alameda, Police Chief Reed Mahuna, Temporary Fire Chief Daniel Volpe and Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen to appear in a 60-second public service video urging motorists to “drive safe and make it home.”

In the video, Mahuna said that most head-on collisions occur “because someone is rushing, trying to overtake when it is not safe.”

“Oncoming traffic, blind curves, wet roads — that split second isn’t worth a life,” Mahuna said.

Calling the recent traffic deaths “devastating, unnecessarily devastating,” Deputy Police Chief Sherry Bird said the department is “definitely stepping up enforcement, being proactive, being visible” — including impaired-driving roadblocks — for the upcoming three-day Memorial Day weekend.

“We don’t like to respond to these traffic fatalities. We don’t need any more of them,” Bird said. “We’re pleading with everyone to be responsible, to drive responsibly. If you’re going to drink, please have a designated driver.”

Email John Burnett at john.burnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.