Rufino Quintinita died yesterday in a hit-and-run accident on Manoa Road. Photo courtesy of Quintinita family

The Toyota is a '90s model, police said. The make of the car is known because of signal-light fragments recovered at the scene of the 5:40 a.m. hit and run.

Quintinita, a Kamehameha Heights resident and yardman who was on his way to a regular Wednesday job, was struck while crossing Manoa Road, mauka of Lanihuli Drive. Vehicular homicide investigators said the suspect car slowed down after the collision but failed to stop and help the victim..

"He loved to work," said Rosemarie Quintinita, the victim's 31-year-old daughter and the youngest of his three children. "A police lady came to the house and said he was at (The Queen's Medical Center). I cannot believe he's hurt."

Her father died at the hospital about two hours after being hit.

"I was shocked when his wife told me," neighbor Juanita Ramos said. "Around here, we all call him grandpa.

"He was a quite, hard-working man, very healthy, and he doesn't like to stay at home," Ramos added.

Rosemarie Quintinita said she saw her father before he left the house at about 4 a.m. yesterday to catch the bus to Manoa. "He didn't talk too much but he loved his family," she said.

One of Quintinita's favorite activities was going to Wahiawa with his wife on weekends and to tend to their vegetable garden, his daughter said.

Besides his wife and daughter, Quintinita is survived by a son and daughter living on the Mainland and three grandchildren. Funeral services are pending.

Residents living on that downhill section of Manoa Road expressed concern yesterday about traffic safety along the 25-mph speed limit zone.

Sarah Loui, who lives close to where the man was struck, said, "A lot of drivers come down the hill pretty fast, trying to beat the red light at that intersection" of Manoa Road and Lanihuli Street.

With yesterday's death, the number of O'ahu's traffic deaths for the year is 53, compared with 60 on the same date in 2001. Maj. Robert Prasser, commander of the Honolulu Police Department's Traffic Division, attributed the drop in vehicle-collision deaths to stepped-up patrol efforts.

It's a concern, however, that the strategy has failed to reduce the number of pedestrian and motorcycle fatalities. "Pedestrian fatalities are slightly ahead and motorcycle fatalities way ahead of last year," Prasser said.

The medical examiner's office yesterday identified the motorcyclists killed Saturday and Monday nights as Robert Eagle Pederson IV, 24, and Leonard C. Toussaint Jr., 27, respectively. Both were in the military.