Hawaii Police Department Chief Reed Mahuna told the county Police Commission that despite improvements to the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, reduced speed limits in certain areas and conspicuous traffic enforcement, some drivers continue to recklessly endanger themselves and others on the island’s main east-west thoroughfare.

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Hawaii Police Department Chief Reed Mahuna told the county Police Commission that despite improvements to the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, reduced speed limits in certain areas and conspicuous traffic enforcement, some drivers continue to recklessly endanger themselves and others on the island’s main east-west thoroughfare.

“It’s not an easy task to get people to behave differently,” Mahuna told commissioners at the panel’s monthly meeting Friday in Kona.

Police conducted a high-visibility enforcement operation in June on the DKI, also known as Saddle Road. Overall, between June 4 and June 21, 2026, officers conducted 1,069 traffic stops along the highway and identified numerous violations, including: 649 speeding violations; 17 reckless driving violations; six unsafe passing violations; and 509 other traffic violations.

Enforcement efforts during this period also resulted in two DUI arrests and five arrests for other offenses.

“We’ve done several high-profile enforcement efforts, but we’ve also done efforts where we didn’t publicize it,” the chief said. “We continue to try and educate people on the dangers of the highway. We’ve had fatals occur on the highway while we had officers active up there doing traffic enforcement.”

Through Friday there have been 24 traffic fatalities on Hawaii Island, seven more than the 17 deaths at the same time last year.

In response to a question from Chairman Greg Yamada, a retired police officer, Mahuna acknowledged that traffic deaths are “up significantly this year.”

“For me, it’s troubling,” Mahuna said. “Just recently, we have a vehicle that is passing, you know, overtaking — in fog, in rain, passing and overtaking — and kills a member of our community,” Mahuna said, referring to the Labor Day weekend crash on the west end of DKI that killed motorcyclist William “Billy” Simao and seriously injured motorcyclist Perry Keohuloa, both of Hilo.

Jeremy Alexander Fleming of Hilo was arrested and charged with manslaughter and the lesser offense of second-degree negligent homicide for Simao’s death but can only be convicted of one of the charges. Fleming is also charged with first-degree negligent injury for the injuries to Keohuloa.

Investigators determined that the 39-year-old Fleming was driving a westbound blue 2023 Tesla sedan, attempting to pass several westbound vehicles by entering the eastbound lane, and collided head-on with Simao’s gray 2020 Harley-Davidson near the 46-mile marker. The collision, police said, caused Simao’s motorcycle to collide with Keohuloa’s, which was also traveling eastbound in the same lane.

Fleming had been cited three times for speeding on the DKI within the previous 26 months.

“This particular driver has numerous stops for speeding and citations issued on Daniel K. Inouye Highway. But yet, we continue to see the behavior. So it’s very frustrating,” Mahuna said. “But we continue to think of ways that we can educate the public as well as provide enforcement deterrence on the highway.”

The Labor Day weekend crash is one of several fatal collisions on DKI in the past year.

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The first, which occurred on Oct. 23, 2025, killed 47-year-old Anna Masaichy of Kailua-Kona, who died at the scene. Masaichy’s 3-week-old granddaughter, Aniana Kasthy, succumbed four days later. Four other members of Masaichy’s family were seriously injured.

According to police, the 2014 Subaru sport-utility vehicle driven by Masaichy’s 51-year-old husband, McCarthy Salalap, was Hilo bound on the DKI Highway near the 25-mile marker in South Hilo, when it was struck head-on by a Kona-bound 2023 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck driven by 43-year-old Kimo K. Medeiros of Kurtistown.

Medeiros, who also was injured, has pleaded not guilty to two counts each of manslaughter, first-degree negligent homicide, and third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug; three counts of first-degree negligent injury; plus reckless driving, driving under the influence of drugs, marijuana possession and driving without a license.

On Christmas Eve 2025, 74-year-old Judith “Judy” Fitzgerald, an emergency room physician at Hilo Benioff Medical Center who lived in Kailua-Kona, was killed in a head-on collision on the DKI.

A Hilo-bound 2020 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck driven by 34-year-old Caitlin Smith of Hilo crossed the center line near the 13-mile marker in Hilo and struck Fitzgerald’s Kona-bound 2025 Mazda Miata convertible head-on, according to police.

Smith, who was treated for minor injuries at HBMC, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree negligent homicide, DUI and reckless driving. She was released from custody without charges on Christmas Day, pending further investigation.

On May 15, a collision on the DKI killed 29-year-old Troy Rasse of Pahoa and 24-year-old Jadelyn Cariaga of Hilo, who were described in social media as a couple recently engaged to be married.

Rasse and Cariaga died when the driver of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck they were passengers in lost control while negotiating a curve on the wet highway near the 13-mile marker, crossed the centerline, and collided head-on with a Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck towing a trailer carrying a mini-excavator.

And on June 11, 17-year-old Mackenzie Valentin of Hilo died when she lost control of her Toyota 4-Runner driving west on wet pavement on DKI near the 18-mile marker. Officers determined that Valentin’s vehicle hydroplaned on a curve into the Hilo-bound lane and was subsequently broadsided by a 2024 Ford F450 commercial truck.

The collision caused the Toyota to catch fire with Valentin trapped within the vehicle. She was unresponsive when responding personnel arrived.

Yamada asked Mahuna if he has noticed “any trend that can be identified regarding the crashes or fatalities or causes that are any different now then they were five years ago?”

”I drive that road a lot. I do see improvements,” Mahuna replied. “But to me, that is the trend that I see that is maybe a little bit different, you know, than in years past, is that in known bad weather conditions, people are still not taking the warning of what their vehicle is capable of and they end up in situations in which they end up killing someone else or themselves.”

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Email John Burnett at [email protected].