The following is a recent email we sent to Margaret Wille, who serves on our County Council. Wille was out of town but her office sent the response that follows our email posted here. We are hoping that by posting this there will be a healthy representation from the Puako community to attend this meeting of the Kohala Traffic Safety Committee on Jan12th. Lots of residents are concerned and frustrated with the ever-increasing speeding here. This meeting will hopefully offer some solutions.We have a dear friend and neighbor who just lost her dog to a speeding car 2 days ago. It would be a relief to get this situation under control before we hear the horrific news that a child has been hit.
Please continue to call the police whenever you encounter speeders,and, if possible, provide them with a license plate number. We are organizing a group text at our end of the street so that when a speeder races down our roadway, a group text is sent out and all parties on the group text then call the police. We are hoping that the more we alert the police to our speeding problem, the more we will see police presence here in Puako.This has been a on-going problem for years and will not end until the community stands together and asks for more police presence.
I want to be perfectly clear that we are not targeting surfers, it’s a simple fact that when there is surf, there is more traffic and more speeding.
There is lots of information available on the internet if you google, “neighborhood speeders”…
THIS IS THE EMAIL TO OUR COUNTY COUNCIL REP.,MARGARET WILLE:
Date: December 10, 2015 at 8:45:18 AM HST
To:margaretwille@hawaiicounty.gov
Subject: Puako speeders
The speeding is at its worst on the weekends and whenever there is surf. The folks congregate at Paniau, at the end of Puako Beach Drive, and party on the weekends; and/or if the surf is up there’s always absolutely insane speeding. We’re not talking about a few miles over the 25 mph speed limit. We are talking about racing up the roadway here, up to 60 miles per hour or more. This is a disaster waiting to happen. It is incredible there has not been a fatality to date. If we stand out in the road and give these speeders the hand signal to slow down, we all get the middle finger back and/or a confrontation.
The most opportune time for a police presence and/or a radar trap would be just as it’s getting dark – that’s when the drivers race out of here after surfing and partying all day. It’s so interesting that any time one drives through Waimea, for instance, there are police using radar and pulling people over all over town. This partying and speeding has been a normal occurrence in this little community for years now. Seldom do you see the presence of a police cruiser here, and if you do it’s a quick drive up and down the street – never a stop and inspection of Paniau, which is what it’s going to take to get some control over things here.
If what we hear is true – the police are spread too thin -is there a possibility of having even a fake camera placed here with a sign saying that the driver’s speed is being monitored??? Anything at this point would be helpful! Again, we are living here with a disaster waiting to happen.
THE RESPONSE FROM WILLE’S OFFICE:
The South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee will meet on Jan. 12th
at the Waimea Civic Center 4:00 pm – this would be a good meeting to attend
regarding the speeding issues in Puakō and to garner support from this group.
If you can’t make this meeting – would you be able to make the February meeting?
Let us know and mahalo,
Donni Sheather
808 887-2069
Stephen Eitel
puako.org 