Victim regarded as caring, giving
| • | Elderly top pedestrian deaths |
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Florentina Ritarita never had the chance to speak to or kiss Servillano Bandonil, her companion of 15 years, before he left their Winant Street duplex Tuesday morning.
Bandonil, a custodian at Hawaii Baptist Academy, had left for work earlier than usual. Ritarita thinks he was planning to catch a bus to a Kalihi recycling plant before going to his job. He had taken some aluminum cans to the plant on Sunday and might have wanted to follow up on that.
Servillano Bandonil died after he was struck as he jaywalked across North King Street.
Bandonil, who celebrated his 82nd birthday on July 31, was critically injured when struck by an SUV as he jaywalked across North King Street at 7 a.m. Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at The Queen's Medical Center at 9:02 a.m.
Bandonil was trying to catch a bus that was stopped at a bus stop fronting Farrington High School. The bus stop isn't far from his home — a distance about the length of a football field.
"It had to be just for those cans," Ritarita said, wondering why Bandonil was rushing to cross the street to catch a bus headed in the opposite direction of the route he normally took to work.
"He's a good man and hard-working."
Michelle Oda, a Hawaii Baptist Academy employee who had met Bandonil about nine years ago, said he had a good reason to continue working.
"He had two more grandchildren to put through college," Oda said. "He had helped to put all his other grandchildren, both here and in the Philippines, through college.
"He was just a gentleman, polite to everyone. We're his family here and he'll be missed."
Ritarita and Bandonil were both widowed when they met 15 years ago. Both were active members of the Filipino Community Club of Hawaii — he as past president and she as the current president — and the Filipino Cultural Club of Honolulu. Bandonil has five adult children — three sons in Hawai'i and a daughter and a son in the Philippines, Ritarita said.
"I'm still shocked," she said. "... I just miss him."
Funeral plans are pending, Ritarita said.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
