Screech, crash, bang — and then a quick flash of light as an SUV slammed into utility poles.

The early morning crash Sunday along Diamond Head Road that sent five young adults to the hospital was captured on security footage at 12:55 a.m. and woke residents in the area.

It has galvanized community members who for years have been concerned about speeding and have repeatedly requested the city make the road safer.

“This was my fourth or fifth crash,” said Catherine Conrad, a resident at the top of the hill for 15 years. “I have had multiple accidents right in the vicinity of my home or property, and it almost always involves telephone poles or walls. You hear the screeching, and you just wait for the crash. It’s gotten to be a PTSD type of reaction for me.”

This time the crash hit close to home, literally, as the SUV landed on her property, according to Conrad, with the vehicle precariously entangled below power lines in front of her hedge. She said she heard a girl screaming as she called 911.

Conrad, along with other residents in the neighborhood, wants the city to take immediate measures to slow down traffic along Diamond Head Road, a two-lane thoroughfare used by visitors and residents alike, including surfers, joggers, bicyclists, moped riders, commuters and city and tour buses.

The speed limit on the road is 25 mph, although yellow signs advise 10 mph in some areas, but no one follows it, according to residents. Instead, motorcycles and other motor vehicles speed past at about 50 mph, sometimes faster, with many misnavigating the curves.

They said they would welcome traffic-calming devices, whether it be speed tables, speed humps, marked intersections or stop signs. The situation has only been getting worse, they said.

Alexi Drouin, another longtime resident on Diamond Head Road, said he would welcome any tool to get drivers to slow down.

“The bottom line, people are just driving too fast,” he said. “They need to slow down.”

Drouin is especially concerned for the young families that walk along the road, as he does, with baby strollers.

He said drunken drivers and speeders have run over his trash cans and taken out a fire hydrant over the years. Drivers do not treat the area as a residential neighborhood, Drouin said, as they barrel past to get from Waikiki to Kahala.

He also worries about all of the unwary tourists on Biki bikes or walking, enjoying the view, unaware of how dangerous the road can be.

“You shouldn’t wait for a fatality to happen to take some sort of action,” Drouin said.

Kendric Wong, who has lived near the road nearly 20 years, said crashes in the middle of the night have happened many times before. Earlier this year he lost his beloved dog, Hoku, to someone speeding along Diamond Head Road when the dog dashed out to the road and was run over. The driver never slowed down, never stopped, Wong said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Wong and his son had begun walking along the road in the evenings. After seeing cars and motorcycles ripping through the thoroughfare, they stopped because it was too dangerous, even when wearing lights and reflectors. During the day it’s also hazardous to cross the road to get to the beach park.

Yet daily, there are joggers, bicyclists and tourists on their way to Diamond Head, one of the most well-known natural monuments in the world, he said.

“So you have this dangerous mixture of uses, and you add high-speed traffic, you create danger,” Wong said.

Had traffic-calming devices been in place, he said, the SUV in Sunday’s crash may not have been able to accelerate as it rounded the curve.

Due to Wong’s advocacy, the Diamond Head Neighborhood Board in April unanimously passed a resolution requesting the installation of traffic-calming measures along the road.

The two-lane Diamond Head Road is a city-owned road, but officials have not taken any action yet.

Diamond Head Neighborhood Board Chair Winston Welch said speeding is a growing problem in the area, not only on Diamond Head Road, but also in congested areas such as Monsarrat and Kapahulu avenues.

“It’s just that people are driving too fast, and they’re not taking care of driving with aloha at the end of the day,” he said. “If you’re driving with aloha, that means you’re taking care of the people around you. You’re cautious and understand conditions in these neighborhoods, where we’re so densely packed, are difficult.”

Roger Morton, director of the city’s Department of Transportation Services, is expected to meet with residents and speak with the neighborhood board next week, according to Welch.

“DTS takes safety on City streets seriously, and the process of putting any traffic calming installations on our streets are based on engineering evaluations,” said DTS in a statement. “However, engineered traffic controls do not affect individual driver behavior, for example, driving under the influence.”

DTS said Diamond Head Road has multiple curves, limited sight distances and hills that may not be appropriate for the installation of speed humps, which are just one tool in reducing speed on roadways.

“DTS will evaluate Diamond Head road to determine which traffic calming devices to reduce speeding is best recommended for this complex roadway,” said the department. “DTS will report back to the Neighborhood Board once our evaluations and study has been completed.”

Speed humps cost about $120,000, according to DTS, while other devices, such as a flashing-beacon crosswalk like the one installed in Kailua town, costs up to $500,000.

The state Department of Transportation, meanwhile, is on a roll in its deployment of raised crosswalks and speed humps, which are lower-sloped and broader, as traffic-calming devices. There are more than 130 speed humps statewide, with at least another 30 planned, according to DOT Director Ed Sniffen, who says the data shows they work.

“Regardless of the identified cause of a traffic crash, the cause of a traffic fatality is always speed,” Sniffen said. “Excessive speed reduces reaction time and increases lethality of impacts.”

They have been installed on Pali Highway and in Nanakuli and Kalihi. Several are also in progress along Kalanianaole Highway in Waimanalo, as well as near Holomua Elementary School in Ewa Beach.

There are none in Waikiki, Diamond Head or Hawaii Kai, according to a DOT safety map, though requests have been made for those neighborhoods.

The state is working with various counties to finalize a list of city streets where speed humps could be installed.

This state-city partnership facilitated the quick installation of speed humps on Kapiolani Boulevard near McKinley High School, the site of a fatal hit-and-run earlier this year.

Honolulu police said they are still investigating the crash that occurred Sunday and that no arrests have been made.

The SUV’s occupants included men and women, ages 18 to 22, who were transported in serious but stable condition to the hospital, according to Honolulu Emergency Medical Services.

Because it was not a critical or fatal collision, police said more details including whether speed, alcohol or drugs were involved would not be posted to its media page.

Based on what was witnessed and captured on video, residents in the area said speeding was definitely a factor. The SUV took out a yellow speed sign, they said, along with part of a rock wall when it careened around the curve and landed sideways against utility poles, leaving skid marks.

“They were going so fast that you could say they lost control,” Conrad said. “There’s no question about it.”