Honolulu traffic fatalities highest in five years

Honolulu’s spike in traffic fatalities this year has already exceeded the last five.

According to Honolulu Police Department statistics — which HPD acknowledges may be prone to slight fluctuations — the annual number of traffic fatalities on the island between 2020 and 2024 is as follows:

• In 2020, 49 fatal crashes

• In 2021, 49 fatal crashes

• In 2022, 54 fatal crashes

• In 2023, 52 fatal crashes

• In 2024, 52 fatal crashes

But as of Aug. 21 — when a 72-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed in McCully — Honolulu has seen 55 traffic fatalities.

HPD statistics vary slightly from those gathered by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism: the 2024 State of Hawai‘i Data Book lists 56 fatal crashes in 2023.

Despite this spike in fatalities, HPD data doesn’t seem to suggest that there has been any great increase in overall traffic collisions this year compared to previous years. In fact, this year so far has seen 16,614 collisions, a marginal decrease from the same period in 2024.

Annual traffic crashes over the last five years have tended to hover around 25,000, although 2020 — the year characterized by pandemic shelter-in-place mandates — only had a little more than 20,000.

HPD data also does not concentrate this year’s crashes around any particular area. The Ahuimanu area seems to have had the most fatal crashes this year — three so far — but few other neighborhoods on the island, rural or urban, have had more one, and many have had none at all.

HPD spokeswoman Kerry Yoshida told Aloha State Daily that any guess as to why fatalities are so high this year “would be purely speculation on our part.” However, she noted that crashes have common factors including speed, impaired driving, failure to wear seatbelts and the like.

On Monday, HPD announced a community-driven traffic safety campaign called “Safer Roads, Together,” wherein officers will hold weekly video messages promoting traffic safety, and will be stationed in various neighborhoods to promote safe driving behaviors.

The campaign is intended to “remind everyone that simple choices — like buckling up, putting your phone away and slowing down — save lives,” said Interim Police Chief Rade Vanic in a statement. “This campaign isn’t about writing tickets; it’s about engaging with the community to save lives."

 For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.