lava rock wall, sign at end of Paradise

[kalakoa]

Shouldn't the driver's insurance pay for this?

In theory, yes; in practice, it's easier to prove that the driver was negligent and deny the claim.

[PaulW]

I bet he didn't stop at the STOP sign either! HPP should put a rumble strip there and at the end of all four of the big roads, they would pay for themselves.

[kalakoa]

HPP should put a rumble strip there

HPP could just stop maintaining its roads, thereby creating a "natural" rumble strip.

They're almost there as it is.

[PaulW]

Ha! Oh come on, it's not that bad.

[Chunkster]

Depends on where you go, PaulW. In some places it is indeed that bad. Or maybe you were being sarcastic? I like sarcasm.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It was only one guy, probably drunk, who drove into that rock wall in the approximately 15 years since it was built. With those odds, the next crash at that location will be in about the year 2032.

If the future does indeed offer us self-driving cars or better yet, flying cars, that would avoid futuristic drunk-wall-crash problems better than a rumble strip or speed bump turds laid in the road.

She had never been to Puna before. "Are there lots of people like you?" she asked, with a hopeful expression. (Paraphrased & plagiarized from Elif Batuman)

[mermaid53]

Actually there have been other accidents in the same exact spot. The Road Traffic Safety Committee was successful in convincing the board to install a 4 way stop at the bottom of Paradise in 2013. The intent was to stop, then slow drivers before hitting that curve on L Rd. There were many close calls of head on collisions between vehicles and pedestrians, bicycle riders and other vehicles while traveling in that curve. Fast moving vehicles couldn't negotiate that curve and would end up in the opposing lane. I had close calls on my bike, as a pedestrian and in my car.

The RTSC was contacted by a member on Ala Heiau in 2013 about his concerns w/drivers hitting the rock wall at the bottom of Makuu and Ala Heiau. RTSC was successful in convincing the board to install red diamond signage at that location but the boards and GM since Jul 2014 hasn't replaced it after there was another accident there....and there is no RTSC anymore to follow up. Before the RTSC was removed, we had hoped to get a stop sign installed at the bottom of Makuu for double measure.

Another RTSC plan that went by the wayside after Jul 2014 was the re-engineering of L Rd curve. The former GM along w/an engineer had drawn up a plan and the money was approved by the board. It had gotten as far as putting out an RFP, Request for Price, but then the GM was terminated. The project would've also addressed the flooding that occurs in the inner curve of L Rd.

The 4 way stop on Beach and Paradise won't help when/if a drunk driver runs the stop sign. Some accidents have taken place in other parts of the park after drivers ran stop signs on cross roads and traveled straight through a main drag. That's why it's important that stop signs be replaced immediately when they go down. I've heard stories of several days or more of downed stop signs not being replaced. There are also stop signs obscured by bushes because the easements are overgrown. The painted STOP and zig zag marks on the roads to warn of an upcoming stop sign are mostly faded now.

[leo]

I went to take a look and that was a pretty bad ram job on that rock wall. The last time I saw an accident there, the car hit the wall further to the right. Hard to believe the driver didn't get hurt.