Question: What is the law about how deep you have to bury two caskets in one plot?
Answer: “Six feet under” has become synonymous with burials, dating from when England required corpses to be buried at that depth to prevent the spread of the plague and other disease.
But there’s really no required standard depth that bodies have to be buried.
The state Department of Health regulates burials, under Title 11, Chapter 22, of its Hawaii Administrative rules dealing with “Mortuaries, Cemeteries, Embalmers, Undertakers, and Mortuary Authorities.”
Section 11-22-5 (b), (2) of that chapter says: “A dead human body shall be interred at a depth sufficient to prevent the creation of any public health nuisance, or public health hazard and to make it impossible for hogs and other animals, or surface drainage or wash, to uncover it.”
While the suggested depth is 6 feet, “there is no hard, fast number that we can regulate if the cemetery can prove it is complying with the rule,” said Peter Oshiro, the Health Department’s environmental health program manager for sanitation/food and drug/vector control.
On Hawaii island, graves in public cemeteries owned by the county are dug to a depth of 4 to 6 feet for a single burial and 8 feet for a “double burial” (two caskets), said Mitchell Dodo of Dodo Mortuary.
“I can’t recall ever having a reported situation where the grave site has been disturbed by animals or being uncovered.”
An official with one of the mortuary companies on Oahu, who declined to be identified, pointed out that caskets typically are not placed directly into the ground.
“Every cemetery that I know of locally here requires that it go into some kind of vault or some kind of container,” she said. “They do not just go into the ground where someone (or something) can get to it.”
She noted that while there is no regulation specifying depth, “we normally will go 6 feet (down) for a single (casket) or 8 or 9 for a double.”
Question: At the intersection of 6th and Pahoa avenues, 6th Avenue mauka-bound is a towaway zone from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. But every day during the week, three to four cars are parked, blocking one of two lanes, creating a traffic mess. I would like to call police, but don’t want to use 911. Is there another number we can call?
Answer: For chronic problems like this, the Honolulu Police Department’s volunteer special enforcement officers could help.
The civilian unit initially was set up to deal with disabled parking stall violations, but eventually expanded their enforcement to all other kinds of parking violations, as well as expired safety stickers and registrations, and abandoned vehicles.
The volunteers, who are assigned to different geographic areas, free up patrol officers to focus on more pressing calls.
You are advised to call your district police station and explain the problem. Numbers are in the phone directory or online at www.honolulupd.org/patrol/ index.htm.
MAHALO
To all who helped my mother last month when she became ill. I had accompanied her to your beautiful island for her Roosevelt High School 60th class reunion. On Sunday, Aug. 19, she collapsed as we waited for the luau bus and was taken to Straub Hospital. The response from everyone was phenomenal. I know I will not remember each person, but would especially like to thank the Hyatt Regency’s security staff, officer Humphries, the paramedics, Dr. William Lee, nurses John and Norman, other tourists waiting with us who offered pillows and towels, and medical assistance from a lovely nurse from Australia. We are back home and my mother is doing fine, but we will never forget the kindness and professionalism of everyone who helped us.
— Rebekah Baylus/CA
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