Traffic fatalities down in Big Island

The Big Island saw a steep drop in traffic fatalities and DUI arrests from June of last year to the same month this year.

Traffic fatalities dropped 67 percent, from 42 to 14, and the number of fatalities because of drugs and alcohol was down 64 percent, from 14 to 5, compared to the year previous. DUI arrests fell 12 percent from 1,414 to 1,238 islandwide, according to a report presented to the Hawaii County Police Commission Friday in Kailua-Kona.

Overall traffic crashes were down 7 percent, from 1,418 to 1,318.

In Kona, juveniles camping in public and homeless individuals sleeping in parks and common areas continue to be a problem and are a focus of enforcement by community policing, said West Hawaii’s Assistant Chief Paul Kealoha. Officers are also focusing on complaints of minors drinking in parking lots, Kealoha said.

On the east side, there were 35 auto thefts in the month of June — and an increase in the yearly total from 250 to 365. Part of that was due to a spike in thefts in the Waiakea area of Hilo, usually at night, Assistant Chief Henry Tavares said. The department has concentrated nighttime patrols in the area, he said.

The department has 23 civilian vacancies, Assistant Chief Marshall Kanehailua reported to the commission.

“We lost a lot of dispatchers off the last recruitment we had for a number of reasons,” Kanehailua said.

The department also lost three officers recently after they decided to return to the mainland after transferring to Hawaii, he said.

Police Chief Harry Kubojiri said that Civil Defense will be briefing all first responders at noon Saturday on the approaching tropical depression Wali. Ground saturation over the past several weeks has county officials concerned about the added rainfall predicted from the system starting this evening, Kubojiri said.

The system is forecast to bring up to a foot of rain in some areas.

“We’re not sure how much more the ground can take,” he said.