Maui:Inaugural DUI checkpoint honors Hannah Brown Wailuku teen was killed by suspected drunk driver in June
LILA FUJIMOTO lfujimoto@mauinews.com
Charlene and Everett Brown hold a banner showing their 19-year-old daughter, Hannah Brown, who was killed in a June 23 traffic collision when her car was hit by a suspected drunken driver on Kuihelani Highway in Kahului. The Brown family joined police and Mothers Against Drunk Driving volunteers at the inaugural Hannah Brown Memorial Intoxication Checkpoint on Friday night. The Maui News / LILA FUJIMOTO photos
KAHULUI — Near the scene of a collision that killed 19-year-old Wailuku resident Hannah Brown, she was remembered Friday night by her family and dozens of others who joined police at a DUI checkpoint in her name.
“Hannah wanted to be a suicide prevention counselor. She wanted to save lives,” Lt. William Hankins, commander of the police Traffic Section, told those gathered outside the Wailuku Police Station shortly before traffic officers set up the checkpoint. “She’s saving lives tonight. She’s doing it through mom and dad, her brothers . . . everybody here.”
He said the Browns, including Hannah’s parents, Everett and Charlene Brown, and brothers Sketch, 21, and Sheriff, 15, are “a very, very special family.”
“To open themselves up to the pain that they suffer every day for the world to see and try and save somebody’s life, it takes a lot,” Hankins said.
“This is for Hannah, and we’re going to do this every year,” he said. “If you guys do anything for the rest of the night, take this message home to your family and friends: Don’t drink and drive. This is the real consequences of what happens.”
Everett Brown hands a Mother’s Against Drunk Driving goodie bag to a sober driver Friday night during a police DUI checkpoint organized in memory of his 19-year-old daughter, Hannah Brown, who died in a traffic collision with a suspected drunken driver. Traffic officer James Taylor was among officers running the checkpoint on Kuihelani Highway.
Police pulled over and screened about 120 vehicles during the inaugural Hannah Brown Memorial Intoxication Checkpoint that was set up for about two hours Friday night. Supporting the effort were about 35 people, including Brown’s family, Mothers Against Drunk Driving volunteers, prosecutors and Maui County Council members.
The Browns, who hadn’t been to their daughter’s crash site until Friday night, weren’t sure how long they would stay. They ended up joining MADD volunteers in handing out goodie bags to drivers who were determined to be sober, staying until the checkpoint was shut down.
“This kine stuff — it feels good, it helps,” Hannah’s father, Everett Brown, said before the checkpoint opened. “We no like her death go in vain.
“She was an advocate for suicide prevention. It’s a different type of advocacy.”
On the shoulder of Kuihelani Highway, as vehicles were getting back on the road after being screened at the roadblock, the Browns held a banner with Hannah’s photo and the message, “Remember Me. Love each other. Don’t drink & drive.”
“We’re very honored to be involved in all of this,” said her mother, Charlene Brown, who carried a backpack with her daughter’s ashes and favorite pandas. “It’s so touching. We never expected this.”
Hankins said the checkpoint location, between Mile Markers 4 and 5 in the Kahului direction of Kuihelani Highway in Kahului, is less than a quarter-mile from the scene where Hannah Brown died June 23.
The collision occurred at 1:27 a.m. when a 2016 Subaru Forester was heading toward Lahaina on the highway in the wrong lane and collided head-on into a 2003 Honda Civic going in the Kahului direction, police said.
Hannah Brown, who was a passenger in the Honda driven by her 19-year-old boyfriend, suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. Her boyfriend was transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center to be treated for injuries he suffered and was later released, police said.
The Subaru driver, a 23-year-old Kula woman, wasn’t injured, police said. She was arrested, then released pending further investigation of first-degree negligent homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol.
Hankins said police have completed the investigation and have forwarded the case to the prosecutor’s office for review.
So far this year, at least 15, or about 71 percent, of the 21 traffic fatalities on Maui County roads have been alcohol- or drug-related. Last year, the percentage of deaths caused by impaired drivers was about 73 percent of the total 19 fatalities, Hankins said. In 2017, when 19 people died in traffic collisions, the rate was about 94 percent.
As of Thursday, police had made 445 impaired-driving arrests this year. Those included four arrests for habitually driving under the influence of an intoxicant, 38 for driving under the influence of drugs and 407 for driving under the influence of alcohol.
“We’re tired of all these senseless deaths,” Hankins said. “There just doesn’t seem to be a shortage of people who are drinking and driving on Maui County roads, and they aren’t getting the message through the Police Department. So we need to recruit help from real victims.”
He said police organized the roadblock because the Browns wanted to do something on behalf of Hannah.
“It was awesome that they even wanted to participate in something that we feel strongly about,” Everett Brown said.
He said he doesn’t drink and feels obligated to speak up when people drink and drive.
“I wasn’t that guy 10 years ago, maybe five years ago, that thought twice about people drinking and driving,” he said. “Now it’s not like that. I got to say something now. I got to educate even my family. I cannot see this happening again.”
Even with the checkpoint well publicized, one driver was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and having an open alcohol container in his vehicle, Hankins said. Police also cited a driver for driving with a suspended license and not having auto insurance.
A few others were pulled aside for additional screening before officers determined the drivers weren’t impaired and sent them on their way.
“The message is we just want people to look out for each other,” said police Assistant Chief Victor Ramos, who helped direct vehicles into the checkpoint.
County Council Member Yuki Lei Sugimura, who also helped hand out goodie bags to sober drivers, said she talked to one motorist who lost a grandmother and another who lost her husband to a drunken driver.
“This is very real,” she said. “It’s totally preventable. That’s why this is important.”
Sugimura is chairwoman of the council’s Multimodal Transportation Committee that has a Dec. 2 hearing on a proposal to allow police to have a vehicle towed when someone is arrested for DUI.
Hankins said police support the bill, similar to a law on Hawaii island, which would make drivers responsible for tow charges and storage fees.
He said police also support changing state law to lower the legal driving limit for alcohol from the current 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent. If that were passed, Hawaii would be second state in the nation after Utah to enact the lower limit.
“This is huge,” Hankins said. “We want to save people’s lives. We’re not telling you not to drink, we’re telling you if you’re gonna drink don’t drive.”
While the checkpoint was named in honor of Hannah Brown, it also was dedicated to other victims of impaired drivers, Hankins said.
“What we’re doing here through Hannah’s message is for all of the victims we’ve lost,” Hankins said. “Through her message, she’s speaking for everybody.
“This is the family that’s brave enough to stand up before everybody and show their pain.”
Everett Brown said the family takes things “day by day.”
“It’s rough,” he said.
“It’s hard,” Charlene Brown added. “We have to live for her. We won’t have her wedding. We won’t have her first child. We won’t have all of that. So we have to honor her somehow. We feel we need to get her message out to the community and not let any family go through what we have to go through on a daily basis.”
She said she was reminded that last year, Thanksgiving fell on Nov. 22, the date of Friday’s checkpoint.
“That was the last Thanksgiving we spent together,” she said. “This is us giving thanks.”
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.
