City workers painted over a crosswalk along North King Street two years ago, but a 75-year-old man struck and killed by a vehicle early yesterday morning was among the many who continued to use the abandoned crosswalk anyway.

"People still use it," Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board member Jamie Harvest-Silva said yesterday. "I guess it's just easier for them."

Thomas Laikupu of North King Street, was heading south to north when he was hit nine feet east of Akepo Lane at 12:09 a.m., police said.

He was struck in the former crosswalk by a hit-and-run driver in an older model, light-colored van that was speeding in the 'ewa-bound direction, police said. The driver of the van did not stop to help Laikupu after hitting him, police said.

Investigators are asking for the public's help in finding the driver and the van, which may have suffered front-end damage.

"I imagine somebody may have seen something," said Capt. Frank Fujii. "A 75-year-old person was killed by somebody's actions out there. We need to get on drivers to comply with the speed limit."

City paramedics found Laikupu in extremely critical condition, with massive injuries, said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department.

In September 2004, residents in the area near Honolulu Community College complained to city officials that it was difficult to cross North King Street without a street light — even while using the crosswalk near Akepo Lane, city spokesman Bill Brennan said.

"It was not a signaled intersection," Brennan said. "People couldn't cross the street safely enough in that mid-block crosswalk. The city was asked to either install a traffic signal or eliminate the crosswalk."

Traffic engineers determined that the area did not warrant a traffic signal, so they recommended removing the crosswalk, while posting signs that prohibited pedestrian crossing, Brennan said.

Within the past month, city workers also painted over a crosswalk farther diamondhead on King Street between One Archer Lane and Straub Clinic & Hospital in a move that angered Ria Crunden, a resident of One Archer Lane.

"There are old people in this building," Crunden said. "I'm 74 and my husband's 76."

Hugh Crunden, a cancer survivor, regularly needs to walk across North King Street to get to Straub, his wife said.

Even with the crosswalk, Ria Crunden said, pedestrians like her and her husband would have to "run or get hit by a car."

City workers painted over the crosswalk because it was designed to assist bus passengers at a nearby bus stop that was recently eliminated, Brennan said.

The absence of the crosswalk between One Archer Lane and Straub now means the Crundens must walk to Cooke Street or to Ward Avenue to cross at an intersection, a trek that is inconvenient and difficult, Ria Crunden said.

But pedestrians should consider longer routes to get to safer intersections instead of crossing in the middle of the street, Brennan said.

"That one was another mid-block crosswalk," he said. "It's safer to cross at an intersection than to cross at mid-block."

Yesterday's fatality put O'ahu's traffic death toll at 65 compared with 54 for the same time last year.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.