Pedestrian dies in 5-car Waipahu crash

Advertiser Staff

A man was killed and three other people injured — two of them critically — in a chain-reaction car crash yesterday near Waipahu Recreation Center.

The 2:25 p.m. crash involved five vehicles and a pedestrian, police said. The pedestrian, identified only as a man in his 20s or 30s, suffered fatal injuries when struck as he stood outside a manapua van.

In critical condition at The Queen's Medical Center were a 68-year-old woman who was the driver of a tan 2002 Toyota Camry that started the crash sequence, and a 52-year-old women who was working as a vendor in the van.

Police said it began when the Camry was involved in a separate collision at Waipahu and Paiwa streets, then fled the scene, speeding makai on Paiwa. About 100 yards mauka of Kahuamoku Street, the Camry rear-ended a parked 1993 Nissan and sideswiped a 1998 Kia sedan traveling on the road.

The force of the crash pushed the Nissan into the van and the pedestrian, who was standing next to the van, police said. Then the van was pushed into the rear of a parked 1991 Mazda pickup truck.

The vendor was standing at the rear of the van, police said. After the crash, she got in the driver's seat and tried to drive away, but hit the truck again. The vehicles became entangled and traveled 200 feet down Paiwa before coming to a stop.

The pedestrian, the Camry's driver and the van worker were taken to Queen's, where the pedestrian was pronounced dead.

An 11-year-old boy who was a passenger in the Camry was treated at the scene and released. The people in the Camry were not wearing seat belts, police said.

The Nissan was badly crumpled and ended up on its roof.