Runaway truck hits church social hall
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
A 56-year-old woman escaped serious injury yesterday when a runaway 7 1/2-ton delivery truck plowed into a termite-eaten building adjoining a Waipahu church.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Ata Alapati was found under the building after the impact of a Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Hawaii truck crashing into the Waipahu Samoan Assembly of God's social hall split the floor of the room where she was preparing for a morning prayer session.
A woman was taken to a hospital complaining of back pain after being retrieved from a church social hall that was rammed by a delivery truck. The truck, parked at Waipahu Elementary School, apparently had a brake failure.
"We were worried about the house falling on her," Waikele Fire Capt. Howard Naone said.
Alapati was treated for neck and back injuries and taken to St. Francis-West, where she was reported in stable condition last night.
The 6 a.m. accident at 94-515 Waipahu St. could have been worse if it had occurred 60 to 90 minutes later when Waipahu Elementary School students could have been in the path of the truck.
The driver, a 29-year-old man, had parked the truck alongside the school's cafeteria, which is above the school parking lot. He arrived at the school shortly before 6 a.m. to service vending machines.
"He said he put on the air brakes but heard a hissing noise," Officer Dana Paikai said.
"He said he checked the truck out but the hissing noise had stopped."
The driver was away from the truck when cafeteria workers told him it was rolling down the hill. The driver told Paikai he chased after the truck but could not safely enter the cab to stop it.
The truck rolled off the cafeteria's driveway and down a grassy slope, hit a light fixture, and went through the parking lot and a chain-link fence before going off an 8-foot ledge and into the building about 200 feet away from the cafeteria.
"Fortunately, the woman was . . . on the other side," Paikai said.
Bill Neighbors, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Hawaii's division safety manager, said the company will cooperate with the police investigation but will also conduct its own probe.
Dez Vaofasa, the injured woman's son and a licensed truck driver, said the driver should have never left the truck if there was a hissing sound.
"I don't blame him, but with air brakes, anything can happen," Vaofasa said. "I believe this was preventable."
