2 dead, 1 critically injured in 3 separate traffic accidents
By Karen Blakeman and Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writers
A Good Samaritan and an unidentified woman are dead and another woman was in critical condition yesterday after a string of unrelated, early morning car wrecks, one involving a hit-and-run driver.
Chopper 8
Police said the Good Samaritan, Keith Yamamoto, 28, died shortly before 4 a.m. after he was pinned between two cars on the westbound lanes of H-1 Freeway, near the Waimalu onramp.
A woman was killed when her car hit a guardrail and landed in a culvert near Helemano Plantation outside Wahiawa.
Yamamoto had gotten out of his car to help a stranded motorist with a flat tire. He was changing the tire when a 17-year-old, driving a white Acura, crossed into the shoulder lane and plowed into him.
Yamamoto was pronounced dead at The Queen's Medical Center.
The 17-year-old driver was also taken to Queen's and treated for minor injuries before he was arrested for negligent homicide, police said.
Three cars parked on the shoulder was hit in a chain reaction caused by the young driver, but none of the other drivers were injured.
Speed and alcohol may be factors, police said.
Police did not know the identity of a woman they said was killed in another early morning accident after she lost control of her car on Kamehameha Highway near the Helemano Plantation outside Wahiawa.
The woman was found dead in a culvert at about 9:45 a.m., several hours after the accident.
The car had been northbound when it began drifting across the center line, police said. It hit a metal guardrail on the west side of the road and vaulted over the rail and into a water-filled culvert.
Police said yesterday they did not know the woman's name or age. She was driving a gold, 1993 Chevrolet Lumina.
Speed probably contributed to that accident, police said. They are investigating whether alcohol was involved.
And a 30-year-old woman was in critical condition yesterday after a 2:23 a.m. hit-and-run accident in Nanakuli at Farrington Highway and Pohakunui Avenue, according to a police report.
She was taken to Queen's by helicopter, police said.
She was crossing the highway from south to north when a dark van traveling west struck her in the outside lane. The van stopped but did not give the victim any assistance before leaving the scene, police said.
Police are seeking help in finding the vehicle, which may have a broken side-view mirror. Officers closed the road for three hours to investigate the accident. They do not know if speed or alcohol was involved.
Anyone with information is asked to call Honolulu Police Department traffic investigators at 529-3499. Those who do not wish to be identified may call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellular phone.
