LIHU‘E — While the fatal accidents along Kuhio Highway near Wailua Golf Course (10 from 2000 to 2009) gain most of the major headlines, the fact remains that it is not even in the state’s top 13 list of Kaua‘i
LIHU‘E — While the fatal accidents along Kuhio Highway near Wailua Golf Course (10 from 2000 to 2009) gain most of the major headlines, the fact remains that it is not even in the state’s top 13 list of Kaua‘i non-intersection accident sites.
Under a formula that takes into account the number of accidents and average daily traffic counts, the most dangerous non-intersection stretch of state highway on Kaua‘i is a section of Kuhio Highway less than a third of a mile long curving around Hanalei Bay.
After Princeville, Kuhio Highway (Route 56) is known as Route 560, and the stretch between the 4.2-mile mark and 4.5-mile mark had nine accidents between 2004 and 2006, average daily traffic of 5,184 vehicles, and an accident rate of 528.50, according to state Department of Transportation Highways Division statistics.
Another stretch of Route 560 just under a third of a mile long, on either side of Hanalei Bridge, was second, with 10 accidents, average daily traffic of 6,800 vehicles and an accident rate of 447.67.
Other sections of Kuhio Highway dot the top-13 list of most dangerous non-intersection stretches of state highways on Kaua‘i, all of them outside the three-mile stretch in Wailua known as “Blood Alley” for all the fatal and bad accidents on that three-lane stretch of road.
The first time any section of Blood Alley comes into play on the list of most-dangerous non-intersection stretches of state highways is the length of Kuhio Highway between the 3.9- and 4.2-mile points, or roughly between the entrance to the Kaua‘i Hilton and Wailua Golf Course.
Between 2004 and 2006, there were 13 accidents, 32,682 vehicles traveling that stretch on an average day, for an accident rate of 121.09.
The stretch of Kuhio Highway with the most accidents recorded between 2004 and 2006 in terms of non-intersection accidents was a section of the highway also less than a third of a mile in length, from a point a tenth of a mile from the start of the highway in Lihu‘e to a point four-tenths of a mile down that includes the area of The Garden Island newspaper building.
That section had 23 accidents in the same three-year period, average daily traffic of 31,956 vehicles, for an accident rate of 219.10. No other stretch of state highway had more non-intersection accidents than 18 during that period.
The stretch that had 18 accidents during that period was Kuhio Highway from the six-mile marker to the 6.3-mile mark, or through Wailua fronting Wailua Beach and northward from there. That section had an accident rate of 188.34, and average daily traffic of 29,094 vehicles.
The Kapule-Ahukini intersection near the entrance to Lihu‘e Airport saw 19 accidents in the same three-year period, and average daily traffic of 27,655 vehicles, for an accident rate of .6274 (calculated differently from the non-intersection rate), followed in terms of numbers of accidents with 18 by the Kuhio Highway-Kuamo‘o Road intersection in Wailua (36,743 vehicles on an average day, accident rate of .4474, ranking it fifth), with the second-most dangerous intersection between 2004 and 2006 the Kapule Highway-Rice Street, non-signalized, three-way intersection, with 13 accidents and average daily traffic counts of 20,982 vehicles for an accident rate of .5658.
The three-way intersection of Kuhio, Rice Street and Kaumuali‘i Highway near the round building was fourth on the list, with 16 accidents and average daily traffic counts of 31,796 vehicles for an accident rate of .4596.
The Kuhio Highway intersection with Kalamania Road and Kolo Road in Kilauea was third, with 10 accidents, 16,571 average daily traffic in number of vehicles, and an accident rate of .5511.
•Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com
