Driver recalls oncoming car left no time to react
| • | Fatal crash survivor says alcohol involved |
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Oncoming traffic on Farrington Highway often had felt unnervingly close when Pua Tandal drove to and from her Makaha home. Each vehicle seemed to hug the yellow lines, a mere distraction away from catastrophe as it passed.
TANDAL
On Monday night, a Nissan Altima crossed into Tandal's path, and she could see its headlights coming at the Ford Explorer. They were coming fast. Way too fast.
She doesn't remember a lot about what happened next. Her boyfriend, seated beside her, said she screamed.
"I knew they were traveling pretty fast," the 18-year-old Tandal said yesterday. "I only remember seeing them about 40 or 50 feet away."
She was knocked unconscious in a collision that killed four people in the Altima.
Her left elbow and right wrist were broken, and she was bruised, but OK. Her 19-year-old boyfriend, Jon Aquino of Kapolei, suffered abrasions to the left side of his face, cuts in one eye, and deep bruises on his chest and legs. But he's OK, too.
The collision happened shortly after 7 p.m. near the Makaha Surfside apartments.
Tandal and Aquino had gone on a dinner run for her parents, both veteran Honolulu police officers. The accident took place less than a half-mile from their home.
She stopped to order Chinese food, then headed over to get pizza. She turned left off Makaha Valley Road and onto the highway, just as she has many times before. Aquino said he was trying to put his seatbelt on; he's not sure he ever did.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Suddenly Tandal was staring at the Altima's headlights and knew instantly that something was wrong.
Jon Aquino, 19, of Kapolei, and his girlfriend, Pua Tandal, 18, of Makaha, were picking up dinner for her parents Monday night when they collided with an oncoming car. Four people were left dead.
"I tried to swerve to dodge it," Tandal said. "I didn't think anything happened. But when I came to, I was looking around and everything was smashed. I knew I was in an accident, but I didn't understand what happened. I looked over at Jon and his head was bleeding. I thought: 'Oh, my God ...' "
At some point, she was able to call her mother, police Capt. Debbie Tandal, who was waiting at home with her husband, Sgt. Randy Tandal. He was on duty but on his dinner break, so the couple knew there had been a bad accident from the chatter on his portable police scanner.
"I said, 'Are you all right?' " Debbie Tandal related yesterday.
"She said, 'No.' "
Debbie Tandal got there in minutes, before the ambulance had even arrived. A former patrol officer, she had been to such scenes "way too many times."
She ran to her daughter's side of the SUV.
"There were a couple of people laying in the roadway," she said. "One was wrapped around my front tire."
Her first thought was that her daughter had hit someone crossing the highway.
"It was such a mess," she said. "She was disoriented, but talking."
Pua Tandal kept asking who was driving the SUV. She kept asking if anyone was hurt, and apologizing for wrecking the SUV.
Debbie Tandal kept telling her it was OK.
Three people in the Altima were dead at the scene, another died a short time later at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. One other passenger was hospitalized at The Queen's Medical Center in critical condition.
Killed were Verna Leina'a Eli, 24; Tina Vaesa'u, 18; and brothers Joshua Mendoza, 20, and Christopher Tacut, 21. Vaesa'u's boyfriend was critically injured.
A Ford Explorer is a formidable vehicle, but Debbie Tandal said it was the seatbelt that saved her daughter's life. When it pulled tight, it left an 8-inch-long bruise.
"I told her the most beautiful mark I saw was the bruise on her chest from the seatbelt," Debbie Tandal said. "I know that was something that saved her life."
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
