Steel Horse loses license after customer in fatal crash | News, Sports, Jobs

The Steel Horse Saloon on Lower Main Street in Wailuku sits closed Friday after its liquor license was revoked for over-serving a Lahaina man charged with negligent homicide in a fatal traffic collision last year. -- The Maui News / CHRIS SUGIDONO photo

The Steel Horse Saloon in Wailuku had its liquor license revoked and closed after selling a Lahaina man 35 alcoholic drinks and allowing him to drive away, according to the minutes of the Liquor Control Adjudication Board.

He later was involved in a fatal traffic collision on Honoapiilani Highway near Maalaea.

The board revoked the bar’s license and fined the owner $2,500 during its Sept. 6 meeting.

Steel Horse Saloon announced its closure Wednesday in a Facebook post. The bar’s phone number was not accepting messages Friday and a sign on the front door indicated it was closed.

“Thank you everyone, who has supported the bar over the years,” the Facebook post read. “OHIA Lounge will be opening soon. We’ll keep you posted.”

Randall Hayes, 34, the man involved in the crash, was arraigned last week and charged with negligent homicide, second-degree negligent injury, driving under the influence of an intoxicant, three counts of inattention to driving, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident involving injury.

He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

The crash occurred shortly before 3 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Maalaea area when Hayes was driving a white 2006 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck toward Lahaina on Honoapiilani Highway, police said. The pickup veered off the roadway onto the mauka shoulder and hit a guardrail before returning to the road, crossing left of center and colliding head-on into a gray Scion heading south on the highway.

The pickup truck went over the makai guardrail and plummeted about 60 feet down the side of a cliff, police said. Hayes wasn’t wearing his seat belt and was transported in critical condition to the Maui Memorial Medical Center emergency room.

A 39-year-old Kahului woman driving the Scion was wearing her seat belt and was transported in fair condition to the hospital, according to police. The Scion’s rear passenger was her father, 66-year-old Manuel R. Rivera of Kahului, who wasn’t wearing his seat belt and was transported in critical condition to the hospital, where he later died.

Steel Horse owner Lily Nguyen appeared before the adjudication board last month and plead not guilty to four violations relating to over-serving and failing to exercise due care. She claimed Hayes drank no more than four drinks, giving the rest to others at the bar, and appeared fit enough to drive, according to minutes from the hearing.

“I’m positive that we don’t serve him more than four drinks, and when he left, he seemed OK with us,” Nguyen said. “Even my customers say that, too.”

According to the minutes of the meeting, Deputy Prosecutor Peter Hanano said Hayes entered the bar at around noon and left at 2:27 p.m. During that time, Hayes bought 35 drinks that included shots, mixed drinks and beer, he said.

After Hayes left, the vehicle he was driving crossed the centerline, hit a curb on Mill Street and forced a white sedan to try to swerve out of the way, Hanano said. Hayes’s vehicle collided with the rear of the sedan and drove off without stopping, he said.

The driver of the Scion told investigators that she had picked up her father from the Westin where he worked as a groundskeeper and was headed home to Kahului, Hanano said. She said she did not have enough time to react to Hayes’ truck.

Hanano said he doubted Hayes only had four drinks and noted his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. He said Nguyen knew Hayes was intoxicated because she asked to call him an Uber ride home and tried taking away his keys.

Nguyen told the board that she cares for all her customers and that the bar is not about “making money.” She said she bought the bar two years ago and has not made any money, but keeps it open for longtime customers.

“I try to do the best that I can to keep, you know, the bar for the nice people,” she said. “We have the old people, regular people. We don’t have fight.”

Hanano argued that the Steel Horse and Nguyen were unfit to hold a liquor license. He said doing “the best we can” is not good enough when it comes to the public’s safety.

“Here, we have a hardworking man, father, husband. Gets killed for no reason,” he said. “This is senseless. Because what? Someone over-served. They didn’t take the responsibility that they should have.”

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.

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