Crash victim's husband refuses to hold grudge
| • | Providence, R.I., also dealing with street racing |
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Wallace "Wally" Kekoa remembers his wife of 38 years with a smile and bears no grudge against the 18-year-old driver who police say caused the fatal collision Sunday on the H-1 Freeway in Kaimuki that killed her.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I know where she stay already," the 68-year-old Hawai'i Kai resident said of his wife, Elizabeth, who died at the Queen's Medical Center after their van was struck by a car near the 6th Avenue off-ramp. "Elizabeth is in a good place with the Lord."
Wally Kekoa recalls the moments before a car slammed into his van Sunday on the H-1 Freeway in Kaimuki, killing his wife, Elizabeth.
According to police, Nicholas "Nick" Tudisco was driving the 1999 Honda Prelude that crashed into the van and may have been racing.
"My wife taught catechism (at Holy Trinity School), and we were always prepared in case anything happened. I know how to take this because I get the Lord with me."
Kekoa says it's not in his heart to hold a grudge.
"I cannot blame nobody because nobody, except the Lord, knows when something going happen to you," the 68-year-old Kekoa said before his release yesterday from the Queen's Medical Center.
Tudisco, who escaped serious injury, was booked for negligent homicide Sunday but was released without being charged. Police vehicular homicide investigators are continuing their probe into the incident, which could lead to indictment at a later date.
Tudisco's lawyer, Michael Green, said this week that his client has no recollection of the collision. Green declined to comment on whether Tudisco was racing.
Based on witness statements, police know five cars — several that were black, one yellow and another blue-gray in color — were traveling eastbound in a pack on the H-1 Freeway approaching the Punahou Street off-ramp before the collision occurred, according to vehicular homicide Sgt. David Talon. The cars in the pack were going 30-35 miles per hour, slowing up traffic behind them, Talon added.
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Police ask that anyone with information about the incident call the traffic division at 529-3499, or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
"Soon past the Punahou off-ramp, all of them took off," Talon said. "By the time the witnesses reached the Bingham Street exit (a short distance past the Punahou overpass), they couldn't see the cars anymore."
Tudisco lost control of his car, which was in the farthest left lane, and struck the center concrete median approaching the 6th Avenue off-ramp, police said.
"There was enough energy that the car went forward and hit the van from the back," Talon said.
According to Talon, a motorist approaching the scene saw two black-colored "imports" parked near Tudisco's damaged vehicle and two men talking briefly to him. Both got back into their cars and sped off.
Kekoa said yesterday that he noticed in his rear-view mirror a car approaching fast in the same lane he was in. The next time he checked, the vehicle had already hit the wall and was about a "car-and-a-half length" behind his van. He then told his 58-year-old wife, seated in the front passenger seat, and mother-in-law, Rose Alma, who was in the back, to brace themselves.
"I said 'watch out, we going get hit,' " Kekoa said. "The car was too close, I couldn't change lanes. Everything took two or three seconds."
Kekoa said he was driving 50 miles per hour and the impact caused his van to "fly across" the highway and into a guardrail.
"I got out and my mother-in-law got out," Kekoa said. "I looked at my wife and it was just like she was smiling. I never like touch her because she was hurt."
Three motorists stopped to help. Kekoa said he asked them to call police and an ambulance.
The Kekoas were on their way home from a Saturday night party celebrating Alma's 79th birthday when the collision occurred. Kekoa suffered a painful stiff neck and left shoulder bruise. Alma has facial injuries and is expected to be hospitalized for three to four weeks, her son Willie Davis said.
It was Davis and Kekoa's son, Kris, who told Kekoa of his wife's death.
"I can't talk to her because she's dead so I say prayers," Wally Kekoa said. "Now she gotta wait for me, and I hope I go to the same place she is.
"My wife stay at church seven days a week. She taught me that church makes you feel strong and without the Lord, we got nothing. So I know she's OK."
Kris Kekoa and Tudisco are both Saint Louis School graduates and were acquaintances from Hawai'i Kai's youth baseball program.
"I know my mom is in a better place," Kris Kekoa said. "As far as Nick, I don't know what I would say to him except that we don't hold grudges. Our family was taught to forgive."
Elizabeth Kekoa was raised as a Catholic by her mother's parents, the late William and Margaret Kepano, said Davis. He, his mother and three brothers, however, are all Protestants, Davis added.
"I never realized how many lives she touched until this happened," Davis said. "My sister's heart was bigger than her body. What I'll remember about her is that up to the day we lost her, the word 'no' was not in my sister's vocabulary."
Services for Elizabeth Kekoa are pending. Survivors also include daughter Kristin, 21, and brothers William, Sedgie and Ricky Davis.
Police, meanwhile, are trying to determine whether Tudisco knew the other drivers in the pack of cars or happened upon them.
Witnesses told police that some of the cars that were in the eastbound pack had parking lights turned on but not headlights.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com
