Several hurt in Kapahulu hit-run

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Six people, including an elderly woman in a wheelchair, were crossing Date Street at Kapahulu Avenue last night when a hit-and-run driver in a van ran into them, police and fire officials said.

Police later found the van at Olokele and Leialoha avenues behind Crane Park but had not made an arrest. The victims were taken to The Queen's Medical Center, where hospital officials would not release any information on their condition or say how many were being treated.

Police closed Date Street at Kapahulu. A folded wheelchair lay in the crosswalk, next to a pillow and a pair of girl's green rubber slippers.

"I heard them all screaming," said a 14-year-old boy who saw the accident. "I turned around and the dad was trying to pull the daughter from beneath the van. He was kicking the bumper and yelling at the driver. The driver tried to run them over again."

The boy identified the abandoned van for police after they found it.

The boy, a freshman at Kaimuki High School, had just finished playing basketball at the Boys & Girls Club of Hawai'i about 8:20 p.m. and headed makai into the crosswalk at Date Street.

Just in front of him were six people, whom he assumed to be a family. They included the woman in the wheelchair, a man, woman, two boys and a girl.

The crossing signal was green, the boy said, but the van was trying to make a left turn into the crosswalk from Kapahulu Avenue.

Just after the boy passed the group he got a glimpse of the van and heard the screams.

"It happened so fast," the boy said. "I could only see a blur."

As the man yelled at the driver, the boy called 911 on his cell phone at 8:21 p.m. and read off the license plate.

"The mom, grandma and a boy were in a stretcher," he said. "The dad, daughter and the little boy was still walking."

A police investigation is under way.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.