The state Department of Transportation has been accused of misleading the public following a pedestrian accident Thursday afternoon in which a 10-year old boy visiting with his family from California was seriously injured at Laniakea Beach on Oahu’s north shore.

On Friday, DOT issued a public statement concerning the accident and the background of the current dangerous situation on the highway fronting the beach.

“HDOT is confident that if the barriers were in place this collision would not have happened,” the statement asserted, and then went on to blame delays in implementing safety measures on community groups which had gone to court to block the state’s initial attempt at a solution.

The DOT statement, distributed to news media, included a chronology of “attempts to improve traffic safety and flow on Kamehameha Highway at Laniakea Beach….”

This drew a sharp respond from Bill Saunders, an attorney representing the Save Laniakea Coalition in litigation regarding the Laniakea traffic solution. His response came in a letter addressed to Deputy Attorney General John H. Price, who represents DOT. Saunders sent a copy of his letter to news media Friday evening.

As you know, there was a tragic accident in the area of the Laniakea surf spot yesterday. I just received a copy of the State DOT’s news release attempting to foist off blame for the situation at Laniakea with vague and inaccurate references to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs and the community that opposed the initial illegal placement of barriers. The news release is deliberately misleading and omits a number of key facts and dates, including all the times we tried to have this matter settled by proposing virtually the identical solution contained in your email dated June 24, 2019, which was falsely portrayed as something the DOT initialed, but was really a month-old response to my email.

As you know, we have repeatedly proposed a solution and have indicated that we will cooperate with getting the court’s interim approval so the lengthy permit process can be avoided and safe parking, access and traffic control can be achieved in the short tem pending issuance of permits. We have been seeking this since July 29,2015, a month the after the injunction was entered — EVEN BEFORE THE INITIAL BARRIERS WERE REMOVED!

I am attaching for your reference a number of emails and other documents that show our repeated attempts to try to settle this matter with DOT over the past 4 years. I am also attaching numerous emails I sent to elected officials proposing the same solution.I demand that you have your client correct the record by including in a revised press release all of these dates and details to supplement the selective, misleading and self-serving chronology that it disseminated to the media. To provide a head start, I am copying a number of media entities on this email and including the attachments.

What is just as troubling and shows the mind set of DOT, a few days ago a conference was held which included the DOT’s Deputy Director for Highways, Ed Sniffen, the mayor and a number of other government officials. In discussions with these officials, when questioned about the Laniakea situation, Mr. Sniffen reportedly made statements to the effect that DOT has been trying repeatedly to settle this matter and that the plaintiffs’ attorney (ME), just never respond or belatedly respond. That was a flat out lie as the attached documentation and correspondence will show.

I find it very Trumpian at a time like this, when there has been a tragic accident, for the DOT to purposefully distort the record, provide “alternate facts,” and try to lay off blame on others, including me and my clients.

Shortly after the court’s injunction requiring removal of the barriers was entered, we approached your client with a solution and discussed it with the judge at a settlement conference. To refresh your recollection, I am enclosing our settlement conference statement which sets forth our position at that time – 29, 2015. That position has not changed and we have been trying for years to get the DOT to approve this solution. It wasn’t until late June of this that you responded to my email of May 13 and that DOT made any effort work with us or accept our long-proposed solution. Unfortunately, that willingness came four years too late and a tragic accident has occurred in the meantime.

Usually these kinds of exchanges are buried in court files, but this one is now playing out in public.