Waimanalo accident kills youth on bicycle
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
WAIMANALO — Police are seeking a boy who was with a 14-year-old Waimanalo youth yesterday morning moments before the youth was struck and killed when his bicycle veered onto Kalaniana'ole Highway.
The medical examiner's office last night identified the victim as Justin L. Flores.
The boys were both on bicycles when the collision occurred at about 8:30 a.m., and two witnesses said they thought the other boy pushed the victim into the road by accident, police said.
The second boy told people at the scene that he was going to tell his aunt about the accident, but he never returned, police said.
Bystanders said the victim was a student at Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate School.
Word of the tragedy spread quickly through this rural community.
An accident like this is tragic for both sides — the victim and the driver — said Wilson Ho, chairman of the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board.
"At this point, fault is not important because there's a tragedy here," Ho said, adding that his sympathy goes out to both families.
Police said witnesses told them that the boys were riding on the mauka sidewalk in the Kailua-bound direction between Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate School and Mo'ole Street and were playing and slapping each other.
Somehow, Flores ended up in the road in the path of a white Taurus station wagon driven by a 21-year-old Waimanalo resident who was heading toward Makapu'u, police said.
The car struck the youth, and he landed on the hood, crushing the passenger-side windshield.
He fell to the road about 35 feet from the point of impact, police said.
Flores was taken to the Queen's Medical Center in critical condition and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Neither speed nor alcohol was a factor in the accident, police said.
At the accident site late yesterday morning, a pair of black slippers lay on the asphalt sidewalk.
A white circle on the highway indicated the point of collision. The boy's bicycle, purchased at a police auction and now marked for evidence, leaned against a wall pending transportation. A bent front wheel bore witness to the accident.
A small group of residents gathered in the only shady spot at the intersection of Mo'ole and Kalaniana'ole and talked about what had happened, although no one had actually seen it.
Every time a car pulled up and came to a stop, its passengers were told about the accident.
Police closed the highway between Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate School and Mo'ole Street while conducting their investigation, which included speed and braking tests on the station wagon that struck the youth. The road was opened at about noon.
The two-lane highway where the collision occurred is straight, with no obstructions. The speed limit is 25 mph, 20 during school hours, but the school is on a break.
The driver's family gathered around him in the shade of a banyan tree on the school campus as he wrote out his statement. They declined to comment.
Ho, the neighborhood board chairman, said traffic usually moves slowly through the area because vehicles are backed up because of stoplights.
The sidewalk is adequate for walking but not two bikes side by side, Ho said.
Mo'ole Street resident Kenneth Hanohano, 26, said he knew both of the boys because they often played in the park across from his home. Neither of the youths was ever in trouble, he said.
"They would catch chickens around here and play in the park," Hanohano said.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
