Pedestrian killed in Waikiki accident
By Curtis Lum and Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writers
A pickup truck veered off Kalakaua Avenue onto the sidewalk this afternoon, killing one pedestrian and injuring six others, police and fire fighters said.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
At 4:30 p.m. the Ford 150 pickup truck driven by a man in his late 40s went off the road, police and firefighters said.
Police and fire fighters responded to an accident this afternoon near the corner of Kalakaua and Kaiulani Avenues.
One witness, Justine Jones, said the driver looked like he was sleeping until the truck hit a fire hydrant and news stands, then the truck appeared to speed up. People on the sidewalk jumped out of the way, but others were hit, she said.
Kalakaua Avenue was closed to traffic and cars were being diverted to Kuhio Avenue.
One woman suffered a fractured femur, a man and a woman suffered head injuries, and another woman had cuts on her knees and elbows, fire fighters said.
The injured victims and the driver of the truck were taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Another witness, Gwen Dunbar, a 17-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., was on the same side of the street of the incident minutes before it happened.
Dunbar was returning from retrieving her hotel room keys and was on the mauka side of the street when she saw a truck rush by, hop onto the sidewalk and plow into a pack of pedestrians.
She said she heard a big crash and people screaming and saw tires burning.
"That could have been me," she said. "I just stood there shaking. It happened so fast, but in my mind I can still hear it and see it."
