Dumped vehicles become junkyard
Good luck to all trying to stop the abandoned vehicle plague. It has become endemic in the Hawaiian Islands, as there is no enforcement of the laws. How hard is it to get the vin number and issue a ticket?
Once the vehicle has been abandoned, good luck trying to get it removed. I was working in my yard on March 28 and upon hearing much ado outside on Mamalahoa Highway, I poked my head out to observe a group of men, unhooking and then stripping an old junker. I took pictures and called the police. It took the police three weeks to come and mark the vehicle as abandoned. During those weeks, there were many others stopping by the Mamalahoa pick-and-pull, looking for parts. After all useable parts were removed, then the jerks who are too lazy to take their junk down to the dump began to dump their junk at this site. All told, there was an additional two television sets, six tires, two tires with rims, washer and dryer, transmission housing, bumpers and other random junk.
Finally to my amazement, on May 27, I heard the wonderful back up lyrics of a tow truck. Talking to the tow truck driver, he said that this is all he does, and for a month, he had no tickets to pick up vehicles, but finally, a couple days ago, he got 50, yes, 50, abandoned vehicles to pick up. The biggest issue is that in the time it takes for him to finally go get the vehicles, they are trashed and (like our site) tons of other junk has been dumped there. Luckily for us, he was willing to throw most of the junk into the truck and drag it away.
We are still left with the washer/dryer, one TV, and two tires with rims. It will be up to us good neighbors to drag the junk down to the dump. I have decided to start dumping some stuff myself, Monstera roots. Hopefully, that will grow up and block the pull over area that has been used as a dump for many years, but probably the county will come clean that up immediately.
Christe Martin Edwards-Dwyer
Keauhou