The motorist who slammed into the back of a Honolulu police officer’s patrol car on the H-1 freeway last year has been charged with manslaughter.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Tuesday charging Scott Frederick Ebert with the Jan. 21, 2012, death of officer Garret Davis, who had stopped to help a motorist with a flat tire.
State Circuit Judge Richard Perkins set Ebert’s bail at $100,000.
Prosecutor Chastity Imamura said Davis stopped his blue-and-white Honolulu Police Department patrol car in the left eastbound lane of the freeway near the Kaonohi Street overpass in Aiea behind a pickup truck that had a blown tire.
Police Chief Louis Kealoha had said Davis, 28, stopped behind the truck and turned on his vehicle’s blue lights to alert other drivers that the truck was there and to protect the truck from oncoming traffic.
Davis had talked to the truck driver and was back in his patrol car to call for assistance when Ebert’s truck slammed into the back of the police vehicle, Imamura said. The impact caused the patrol car to burst into flames and trapped Davis inside. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Imamura said several witnesses saw Ebert’s truck traveling at a high speed before the crash, and the black box of Ebert’s Chevrolet Silverado indicated it was traveling at 83 mph at the time of impact. She said the black box also indicated that the truck’s brakes had not been activated.
According to state court records, Ebert was found guilty of speeding three times before the fatal crash. Police stopped him traveling 75 mph in a 55 mph zone on May 19, 2011; on Jun. 22, 2001, police cited him for driving 51 mph in a 35 mph zone; and on Oct. 17, 1998, police clocked him speeding at 82 mph in a 55 mph zone.
Davis’ death and the death of officer Eric Fontes at a traffic stop near Ko Olina Resort in September 2011 prompted state legislators to pass the so-called "move over" law last year.
Fontes, 45, was standing on the grass median on Farrington Highway when he was struck by a pickup truck that left the roadway. The driver, James Dorsey of Waianae, told police he fell asleep behind the wheel of his vehicle. He is scheduled to stand trial in state court for negligent homicide in October.
The law requires drivers to put a lane between their vehicles and a standing emergency vehicle when possible and safe to do so, or to "slow down to a reasonable and prudent speed that is safe under the circumstances of an emergency road situation ahead."
Emergency vehicles include police cars, firetrucks, ambulances and tow trucks.
Davis graduated from the HPD academy in 2008 and grew up in Folsom, Calif. He moved to Honolulu to join the Police Department and had a young daughter.
