Its six weeks into the New Year and already 19 people have died from traffic related crashes in Hawaii.

“Compared to this time last year, we were at 11 with nine pedestrian fatalities—so it is a worrisome number,” said Shelly Kunishige with the Hawaii Department of Transportation.

Each county has already reached their fatality numbers from this time last year.

In Honolulu, there have been three motor vehicle deaths and six pedestrian fatalities up to Feb. 13, 2019. (This time in 2018 there was one motor vehicle death and six pedestrian deaths).

On Maui, there have been two motor vehicle deaths and three pedestrian fatalities so far this year; two of which happened on Saturday, Feb. 9.

(This time last year there were zero motor vehicle deaths and one pedestrian death).

In Hawaii County, there has been one motor vehicle death and one motorcycle fatality since Jan. 1, 2019.

(This time in 2018 there were zero motor vehicle deaths and two pedestrian deaths).

And on Kauai, there have been three motor vehicle deaths, one of which happened on Monday.

(This time in 2018 there were zero deaths on Kauai).

Kauai County already reaching their 2015 total of traffic related deaths.

The number that’s stayed the same from this time last year is the nine pedestrian deaths, which took the lives of 44 people in 2018.

HDOT saying drunk driving is attributed to about 50% of the fatal collisions.

And with a holiday weekend here they hope people won’t get behind the wheel after drinking.

“Any three-day weekend like Presidents Day can be really rough and the police are out watching for anybody that’s driving funny so just don’t do it,” said Arkie Koehl, MADD public policy committee.

“We talk about numbers but each one of those numbers is somebody’s son, someone’s daughter or mother or sister, and that’s something you want to think about—Are you really going to change somebody’s life for the worse because you have to have that one beer?” Kunishige said.

The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii will host an event on Saturday that will include government officials and families of the three victims from the horrific Kakaako crash that happened last month. KHON2 will be there and give you more info tomorrow night.

