KAILUA-KONA — A two-car crash that killed three and sent another to the hospital snarled traffic for hours Wednesday morning, causing headaches for those trying not only to get around the island, but get off it as well.
Following the crash, police shut down the stretch of Highway 19, Queen Kaahumanu Highway, in both directions between the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole and Waikoloa Road, said Civil Defense in a 7:15 a.m. alert. The road was reopened around 11:45 a.m.
Traffic was re-routed along Highway 190, also called Mamalahoa Highway or upper road, with drivers having to detour via Waikoloa Road and Kaiminani Drive.
“It was a real mess this morning for obvious reasons,” said Ray Santangelo, a taxi driver for Laura’s Taxi, at the airport Wednesday afternoon.
Santangelo said he had a pickup scheduled for 8 a.m. Wednesday morning at the Fairmont Orchid Hotel, but after hearing the highway was closed, went to get his passengers as early as he could.
“Their flight was at 10:30; I left the Fairmont at about 7:45,” he said, “and got here about 9:45.”
That’s a trip that normally takes at most half an hour when Highway 19 is open, he said. Even when the highway is closed for events like the Ironman World Championship, it takes about an hour taking the upper road.
One of the big problems was ongoing construction along Mamalahoa Highway where traffic was reduced to just one lane between Puu Waa Waa and Puulani Ranch with alternating traffic flow directed by a portable traffic signal.
“And that caused a huge, huge backup,” Santangelo said, saying it seemed like there was an 8- or 9-mile backup at the traffic signal.
“We were really going 3, 4 miles an hour for the most part,” he said.
State Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara said they took steps to alleviate the backup, including deactivating that traffic signal.
“We were trying to mitigate that as best we can,” Sakahara said.
Santangelo said he got his passengers to the airport 45 minutes before their flight was scheduled to depart.
“So I’m reasonably sure they got on their flight,” he said, “but it was close.”
Other travelers weren’t so lucky.
Tara Shimooka of Hawaiian Airlines said Wednesday afternoon that they had approximately 75 passengers affected by the traffic delays and that agents were working to re-accommodate everyone affected on new flights.
Island Air also had a few passengers miss flights. As those customers arrived at the airport, they were moved to the next available flight at no charge, said Island Air’s Kona Airport station manager Shardae Kaupu Lopez.
And the traffic jams also delayed six school buses, causing them to arrive late to Kealakehe Elementary School and Kealakehe High School, said Lindsay Chambers of the state Department of Education’s communications office.
Those buses, she said, were turned around and had to go up Waikoloa Road to the top of Mamalahoa Highway, resulting in delays.
Three of the buses were coming from the Waikoloa area and a fourth was coming from the Puako-Waikoloa Area. She didn’t know the origin of the other buses.
The latest bus, Chambers said, arrived at 9:35, more than an hour after the first bell.