Copyright staradvertiser
A fiery car crash that killed three people in Ewa Beach in 2017 has resulted in a $1.17-million settlement agreement, following lawsuits claiming the single--vehicle collision was caused by a wrongly placed concrete pillar built for the city’s over-$10 billion elevated guideway and rail project. The lawsuits assert the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, its contractors and the City and County of Honolulu were negligent in the construction and placement of a pillar — specifically, a bridge pier that supports the fixed rail system on a shoulder of Farrington Highway — that was deemed a road hazard that contributed to the deaths of Joshua de Guzman, Kasandra Medina Kim and Ryan Tuazon. To that end, HART’s board of directors voted Friday to approve Resolution 24, which requests the rail agency pay $500,000 toward a larger “global settlement,” in connection to the three deaths. After the vote, HART Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina confirmed the $500,000 payment toward the litigation. “HART is unable to comment further on active litigation,” she added. Roy Chang, a lawyer representing the de Guzman family, briefly commented on the ongoing lawsuits. “We’re still not finalized with everything yet,” Chang said, adding “a lot of different pieces to the puzzle” remain in this case. “HART was one of the first, but there’s all of these other defendants as well.” On July 20, 2017, a 2010 Scion tC driven by Tuazon veered off the westbound lane on Farrington Highway in Ewa Beach, near Kahi Mohala Behavioral Health Center at 91-2301 Old Fort Weaver Road, and struck Pier 128 of the HART guideway, according to the resolution. The vehicle then caught fire. Tuazon, and his passengers de Guzman and Kim, all 27 years old, were later pronounced dead at the scene. The victims’ relatives said the city Medical Examiner’s Office requested dental records to assist in the subsequent identification, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported in 2017. At the time of the crash, Kim and de Guzman left behind a 9-month-old son, Kaleb de Guzman, the Star-Advertiser reported. Tuazon, an electrician with Communication Consulting Services Inc., graduated magna cum laude from Campbell High School in 2007. He later attended Hono-lulu Community College, the Star-Advertiser De Guzman worked as a technician with Cornerstone Air Conditioning. He and his girlfriend, a McKinley High School graduate, and their baby lived with de Guzman’s parents in West Loch at the time. Kim worked as an accountant for the Honolulu Cookie Co., the Star--Advertiser reported. Following the fatal crash, the respective families sued. According to Resolution 24, on Aug. 31, 2017, the victim’s families filed a complaint in 1st Circuit Court to seek damages against the city and HART for the alleged negligence in the design, location, construction, maintenance and the guarding of Pier 128. On July 12, 2019, plaintiff David Bueno, Kim’s father and personal representative of his daughter’s estate, filed a similar complaint seeking damages against the defendants HART and the city, the resolution states. By Jan. 10, 2020, the de Guzman lawsuit and the Bueno lawsuit were consolidated into one overall complaint, known as the “consolidated lawsuit,” the resolution indicates. On Nov. 26, 2024, the de Guzman plaintiffs filed a fourth amended complaint, which named the rail project’s contractors as defendants. Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., formerly known as Kiewit Pacific Co.; HNTB Corp.; SSFM International Inc.; and WSP USA Inc. formerly known as PB Americas Inc., were named in the de Guzman lawsuit, the resolution states. On Dec. 17, 2024, the Bueno plaintiffs added Kiewit, HNTB, SSFM and WSP as defendants in the Bueno lawsuit, the resolution indicates. According to the resolution, “the defense of the city, HART and Kiewit has been provided by the Honolulu Rail Transit Project’s Owner Controlled Insurance Program, or OCIP, general liability insurer, Old Republic General Insurance Corp., with the city, HART and Kiewit denying … all liability in the consolidated lawsuit.” On Sept. 24, 2025, the consolidated lawsuit proceeded to a joint mediation and settlement conference overseen by mediator Keith Hunter and Judge Kevin T. Morikone, the resolution states. On Oct. 1, 2025, a global settlement of all of the claims in the de Guzman and Bueno lawsuits was reached. Out of that agreement, a total sum of $1.17 million was to be paid on behalf of the city, HART and Kiewit, subject to the approval of the HART board of directors, along with the remittance of the agreed-upon settlement amount to the de Guzman and Bueno plaintiffs, and execution of a mutually agreeable written settlement, the resolution “HART will be obligated to pay $500,000 of the $1,170,000 settlement amount … pursuant to the terms of the OCIP policy,” the resolution states. This week, plaintiff’s attorney Chang said the court-imposed deadline to complete the global settlement process with all other named parties is Dec. 1. He noted that process means the contractors must agree to the “settlement release” to resolve this litigation. “In other words, they’re all paying something,” he said. And Chang added the de Guzman lawsuit is a remedy for his clients to recover “different types of damages” due to the death of their son. “So that’s really the purpose of the lawsuit is to try to do two things,” Chang said. “One is to compensate them for what they lost, and the other is, I guess, to serve as an incentive to ensure that this doesn’t happen a second time.”
