Exemplifying dedication and diligence in finding the scene of a traffic collision in a remote place that resulted in the rescue of the elderly driver, Hawai‘i Police Department Officer Jenna Kosinski-Santos was honored with the Hāweo Award through a ceremony held at Hawai‘i County Council chambers in Kona on Tuesday, May well 3.
The award was presented by the Council’s Parks and Recreation and Community Security Committee, or PRPSC, which recognizes county police and hearth section staff who go earlier mentioned and further than the contact of obligation. Hāweo, for which this award is named, means to glow or to be radiant. Kosinski-Santos was offered with a lei and a certificate signed by each councilmember at the ceremony.
On Sept. 20, 2021, Ka‘ū patrol officers responded to Highway 11, north of the Whittington Beach Park, just after a clinical alarm firm reported to law enforcement dispatch that an particular person had perhaps been stabbed, the law enforcement division said in a news launch Tuesday on the award.
It was afterwards identified that in actuality a one-automobile traffic collision had transpired and a male personal was still inside the car. Considerable checks were carried out, however, officers have been unable to locate the crash scene.
Continuing to make region checks, Ka‘ū patrol officer Kosinski-Santos was approximately one particular mile absent from the noted collision place when she noticed two little rocks on the roadway.
On a ordinary working day, the news launch said, this observation would not stand out and pretty frankly, could have been very easily disregarded as there was no very clear sign that just about anything out of the common had transpired, much considerably less an car or truck crash.
Acting on a hunch, Kosinski-Santos parked her car and made a complete visible check out of the steep shoulder and embankment in which she observed an overturned auto at the base of the embankment. Officers designed their way down the embankment and identified a 93-12 months-aged man within just the auto, suspended upside down.
The male driver experienced sustained a lot of accidents, most notably a contusion on the man’s head that ongoing to swell after being extricated from the motor vehicle. The male was transported to the Hilo Healthcare Center in really serious/vital affliction exactly where he been given health-related remedy and is envisioned to make a complete recovery.
Investigators identified that the vehicle ran off the roadway, flipped around, and arrived to rest at the bottom of the embankment. From the highway, there was no indicator that a vehicle crash had occurred. The overturned vehicle was not visible from the roadway and there were no regarded witnesses to the incident.
Had Kosinski-Santos selected to forget about two tiny seemingly innocuous rocks, it is tricky to gauge when the elderly wounded driver would have been learned and it is fairly probable that he would have succumbed to his injuries.
Kosinski-Santos’ decisive actions, spirit of company, and motivation to “go the further mile” clearly demonstrates her dedication to the Hawai‘i Police Department’s main values of integrity, professionalism, compassion, teamwork, and neighborhood pleasure, the release said.
