Big Island police step up highway patrols after fatal crashes
Police made 450 vehicle stops on Saddle Road in one week, with speeding the dominant violation, as fatal crashes on the DKI Highway spurred a wider safety push.
Deadly crashes on the Daniel K. Inouye Highway have pushed Hawaii police into a sustained enforcement campaign aimed at drivers who speed, pass unsafely, text behind the wheel, or skip seat belts. In the week of June 8 through June 14, officers made more than 450 vehicle stops on the Big Island highway corridor and documented 327 speeding violations, showing that the most dangerous behavior remains the one officers are finding most often.
The Hawaii Police Department said the stepped-up patrols are centered on DKI Highway, also known as Saddle Road, after a run of fatal collisions on island roads. From Jan. 1 through June 4, there were three fatal crashes on DKI Highway that killed five people, compared with no fatal crashes on the same stretch during the same period in 2025. In the first 155 days of 2026, HPD said officers carried out 162 selective enforcement operations along the highway and contacted 1,256 drivers.
The latest enforcement numbers show how quickly the campaign has intensified. Between June 4 and June 7, officers contacted 316 drivers and issued 269 speeding citations, along with three moving violations, four reckless-driving citations, one overtaking-on-the-shoulder citation, one electronic-device citation, four motor-vehicle-registration citations, 129 other violations and one arrest. In the following week, the totals climbed again: 450 vehicle stops, 327 speeding violations, five reckless-driving violations, two unsafe-passing violations and 287 other traffic violations.
The focus on Saddle Road comes as county and state officials have treated the recent death toll as a widening crisis. As of May 20, Hawaii Island had already recorded 13 traffic fatalities in 2026, including eight in the prior two weeks. Mayor Kimo Alameda called the situation a public safety emergency and asked Gov. Josh Green for help with messaging, enforcement, engineering and education.
The state Department of Transportation later said it would declare a traffic emergency zone on DKI Highway between mileposts 5.5 and 28 to speed up procurement and permitting for more fixes, including speed cameras. DOT said it had already done sight-distance studies, closed multiple passing zones, posted electronic safety-message signs and installed thermoplastic curbs and delineators in some areas. HPD is urging motorists to slow down, stay off devices, buckle up and never drive impaired, signaling that the crackdown is meant to be part of a longer traffic-safety strategy, not a short burst of patrols.
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