Congratulations to veteran island blogger, Ryan Ozawa, for his work on behalf of alma mater Kukui High School. Lots of well-deserved media attention going to the school’s innovative online presence.
I guess Lost was just a warm-up for Ryan!
Rob Shikina’s story in yesterday’s Star-Advertiser gets credit for highlighting the series of fatal accidents in the past two years involving Roberts Hawaii buses, but came up short. It’s primary source was an unnamed Roberts spokeman. Also cited was unspecified “information from the state Department of Transportation”, and an administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. That’s pretty minimal sourcing.
If the story had gone back further, it would have picked up the fatal accident in 2006 that led to the manslaughter conviction of another Roberts driver. In that case, there were suggestions that fatigue could have been a factor.
One news story noted that the driver was already on the job early in the morning of the fatal accident.
At 6:05 a.m. that day, about 8 1/2 hours before the fatal collision, Oshiro’s bus was involved in a collision with a city bus in Honolulu. Oshiro then returned to Roberts Hawaii’s headquarters to report a “minor accident,” a company spokesman said at the time.
Another news story at the time reported:
The company declined to release the route Oshiro was driving and to provide the number of passengers he transported throughout the day, or when they boarded and disembarked from the bus. However, the company confirmed that Oshiro did drive passengers back and forth between the times of the two accidents.
Are there other indications of possible fatigue? Former drivers? Rival companies? Fatigue researchers?
And wouldn’t a rise in fatal accidents likely be part of an overall rise of nonfatal accidents as well? There’s no indication in the story that any review of overall accident records was done. And are there any other clues tucked away in the records of court cases involving Roberts? I doubt drivers are unionized, but I wonder what background and insights the city’s transit union might provide? Surely there are other potential sources.
As a reader, I went into the story giving credit to the paper for highlighting the pattern of accidents, but came away disappointed at the failure to dig beyond the surface of the issue.
There might be ideas for how to develop the Roberts’ story in this investigative package, Traveling Dangerously in America.
Which reminds me–I’ve had this nagging question–What happened to the Advertiser’s archive, which encompassed clippings of the Advertiser and Star-Bulletin going back at least to the early 20th century, if not farther?
The cabinets that housed the collection were left, empty, in the old Advertiser libary and auctioned off. What happened to their contents?
Anybody know?
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My experience from speaking with previous Roberts drivers is that they have very tight schedules when they’re driving. That combined with the chaotic nature of driving in and around Waikiki is a recipe for disaster.
The last week of the advertiser the contents of the library were boxed up and taken away. All the photographs were going to a company that was going to scan every photo, front and back. The clippings were also to be scanned.
Ian has never been offered an Editor’s job in the local media…..He always seems to have the perfect eye for what’s missing and/or under reported on. I’ve noticed also that Ian has never been wrong. He’s wasting his time with a blog and should move on to the real thing.
I’ll excuse the facetious tone of that comment. I am obviously wrong a lot. Not on this one, though, unless this is the level of reporting the Star-Advertiser is satisfied with. They were right that there is very likely a story there. But they stopped far short of getting it. Is it really wrong for me to point that out so that readers can see the problem?
Or is this part of the “get over it, that was then and this is what passes for the story now” approach to journalism?
I really don’t know.
IWW’s tone was downright sarcastic.
I think the tone of the comment from Wonder is due to the fact you many many times praised the Advertiser “back in the day” for an excellent story while nearly always slamming whatever the SB wrote. Now, that same sentiment is passed on to the SA….even when the former reporters that came from the Advertiser write the story. As one of the other writers on this blog once said, your slip is showing Ian. I think to be fair, the SA writes amny stories in a given week. A few excellent, many good and a few not so much. You have a history of only commenting on the latter.
There are a lot of things “wrong” with the Star Advertiser. And there were things wrong with the Honolulu Advertiser too. But since we have become a one paper town it seems like the SA doesn’t care anymore about doing quality journalism. I guess money talks, quality walks is their new motto.
Maybe Shikina’s story was hacked up. The former Advertiser editors at the new SA give their former colleagues plenty of inches, while former Star-Bulletin reporters are back-benched.
I hope the editors realize they are all in the same boat and we don’t care where the reporters come from, we won’t subscribe if it gets to be hack work.
I am really arguing with myself about re-upping for another 3 months with the Star Advertiser, more like a duty to the free press.
The beautiful, talented young daughter of a UH faculty member was recently run over and killed by a Roberts bus driver. She was not the first and will not be the last until the press demands accountability. No one else has shown a willingness.
Some people at the former SB and current SA cannot handle criticism and it shows and many local readers find this to be ridiculous. Per the usual, this problem starts from SA’s upper management and flows down to some — though certainly not all — of the workers at the bottom of the food chain. I know this from working at the former SB.
The SA now has a daily newspaper monopoly, but that control is not going to hide obvious mistakes and prevent readers from canceling their paper in the long run.
Back to the other subject – I’ll bite. What is Kukui High School? Why does it get media attention?
I went to the KGMB news story. Since I get zero percent of my news via any television show and would rather kill my first-born grandchild than visit any Facebook page or sign up to be twitted, I gather that this is the only way to find out what is the backstory here.
As for the Roberts story(ies), I have often wondered what kind of training the drivers get. The buses are huge, the roads are crowded in urban areas, and often barely negotiable in rural areas.
Perhaps it is time to bring these critical issues up before the new City Council and State Legislature.
Where is the Teamsters Union on this?
Or today’s “breaking news” aka press release stating that the gop will target 15 races in this election- but not which ones.
My problem with the story was the headline: “Roberts buses involved in 5 deaths.”
What, yesterday? Whoa, that IS a story!
Imagine my relief when I read the first couple of paragraphs.
Disclosure: I was laid off from the Star-Bulletin in June, 12 years almost to the day after I was hired. Most of my comments here are made with the full appreciation of how difficult it can be to write a perfect hed or story, every time, on deadline. I’m sure I’ve written some real doozies, myself!
CWD – Kukui High School is the fictional name of an Oahu high school mentioned in the pilot of Hawaii Five-O on CBS. Ryan Ozawa (and myself) put the site together as a fun way to show support for the TV show; complete with an online yearbook and logo shop. The sites were put up within 12 hours of the airing of the pilot. We’ve received great response from the local social media community but were surprised with the media attention.
I worked for Roberts and Charley’s in the 1970s. Roberts was not as bad as Charley’s, where I once worked three weeks straight without a day off (minimum wage [$3.50?], no medical, etc.). I radioed in that I had to have a day off and the boss herself could be heard in the background demanding I stay on the job. My body was shaking from fatigue, so I pulled the empty bus over on Kuhio and left it parked illegally with the flashers on. I took a cab home and slept for 16 hours. When I went back to work the next day it was business as usual, and no one said peep about the abandoned bus. A major reason I left the business of driving was the nightmares about killing someone.
Another issue: Some of the drivers had second jobs, and one had a third. The latter rarely went home except for the occasional shift off.
The “coverage” of the Robert’s Bus fatality was an interesting discussion. I’m also debating about renewing my subscription to the S-B. This story was an ideal example. The merged paper often seems like the S-B which was heavy on graphics and wire copy… although it has a few gems of investigative reporting. I would love to see much more. I would want to see such questioning in all stories — not just the few that seem destined for submission to media awards.
I agree with Nancy’s point that the headline was bad. When I was an undergrad in J-School the point was newsworthiness, which in this case would have been the point. To make it worse, that headline suggested that the article would have included more investigation as to factors contributing to the fatality. Sadly, it didn’t. Journalists/editors have to ask such questions if I want to feel that this is a real paper worthy of subscriptions.
I was also interested in learning about the S-A’s morgue. Will those scanned clippings and notes be made available to subscribers or sold or what? Does anyone know?
Please keep up the blog Ian. I find your observation very insightful.
Cheers,
Drew