Posted on: Monday, June 11, 2001

Nanakuli boy struck by car identified

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

A seven-year-old Nanakuli boy, one of three O'ahu traffic fatalities on Friday and Saturday, was identified yesterday by the city Medical Examiner's Office as Ethan Thomas.

The boy and his father were struck by a vehicle while trying to cross Farrington Highway in Nanakuli about 8:20 p.m. Friday in front of Hawaiian Electric Co.'s Kahe power plant.

The boy was taken to St. Francis-West Medical Center, where he died an hour later. His father, 54, suffered a leg injury and was hospitalized.

The exact cause of the boy's death was to be determined in an autopsy today.

The driver, 28, of Wai'anae, was arrested for investigation of negligent homicide, and police said his blood-alcohol count exceeded the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

The names of the other two victims killed in separate collisions have not been released.

Police still are searching for the driver of a white Volkswagen Jetta believed to have been racing with a 19-year-old 'Aina Haina man killed in a crash at 3:30 a.m. Saturday on the H-1 Freeway near the Wai'alae Avenue off-ramp.

Investigators said they have received information from people who say they might know the driver of the other car, but are still asking for help on the case.

Anyone with information on that car, the driver or the collision can call investigators at 529-3499.

The third case involved a 55-year-old man killed just before 5 a.m. Saturday when his late-model Honda crossed the center line on Kamehameha Highway north of Wahiawa and struck a utility pole.

The deaths brought traffic fatalities for the year to 31, compared to 33 in the same period last year.