Crash victim hailed as 'quiet hero'

By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer

Those closest to Cleighton Adams remember a family-oriented man who was always willing to help people in need.

"He cared for his family," Lou-Ann Adams said about her husband, Cleighton Adams.

"Anyone who needs help, he's always there," said Adams' daughter, Amaris Peneku, 25, via telephone from Las Vegas. "If it's financial, you know, just help moving a table, anything."

Adams, of Nanakuli, was on the way to an Easter egg hunt in Ma'ili with his wife, Lou-Ann, and 9-year-old son, La noa O Pono Keahinu'u-anu, who were taken by ambulance to The Queen's Medical Center where they were treated for injuries.

"He was loyal to his family," Lou-Ann Adams said. "He cared for his family."

Adams was a planner and estimator in the pipe-fitting trade, and worked at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for nearly 35 years, most recently in the Engineering and Planning Department.

"He was a trustworthy employee, a hard worker and a devoted family man," said Adams' supervisor Richard Lorenzo.

Shipyard spokesman Jason Holm said the community lost "a quiet hero."

"Though the shipyard seems like a small city, our employees forge close family ties in the sweat and blood it takes to keep the fleet in fighting shape," Holm said.

Adams was the third eldest of seven siblings who grew up in Nanakuli.

"Basically, he was a quiet person, but yet very concerned about everybody," said his brother Clarence, who lives six doors down from Cleighton's home. "He cared a lot. He was kind."

Adams also has three grown daughters from a previous marriage — Chanda Adams, 30; Janice Kaawa, 27; and Peneku — and seven grandchildren.

"He was a very generous and giving person," Kaawa said. "He was an extremely, extremely, devoted husband and father."

Peneku, Adams' youngest daughter, said her father also went by the nickname, Pono. Peneku tearfully described herself as "daddy's little girl."

Peneku recalled how much her father loved "bubble rice," which she described as just-cooked rice, which he would mix with egg and shoyu.

The 26-year-old man who caused the crash was speeding and under the influence of alcohol, police said. He was taken into police custody and released pending further investigation.

Police said he was traveling toward Makaha on Farrington Highway near Hakimo Road when his sedan crossed the median and hit an oncoming Ford pickup. The impact sent the Ford truck into a crash with a Chevrolet pickup driven by Adams.

Earlier this month the Lingle administration released the state's $1 million portion of an $8 million federally financed construction project scheduled to begin in October that would, among other improvements, install 3-foot high median barriers along a mile-long stretch of Farrington between Hakimo Road and Kaukama Road. The barriers will cost $2 million, said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman.