If you know anything about an older light colored van that hit and killed a 68-year old woman on Fort Weaver Road on Thursday please call the police. The woman was fatally injured when she was struck by the van while crossing Fort Weaver Road in ‘Ewa Beach yesterday morning.
Call HPD’s Traffic Division at 529-3499
The van driver sped away from the fatally injured woman and has not been found. Hit-and-run drivers are among the most vile criminals because they leave their victims to die. We know that the driver was a male but know little else. The Honolulu Advertiser story reports these facts:
Police said the 68-year-old woman was in a crosswalk as she was crossing Fort Weaver Road near Makule Road when she was struck by the south-bound van at about 5:30 a.m. The woman was taken to The Queen’s Medical Center in critical condition, but she later died.
Yesterday morning’s fatality was the 38th on O’ahu so far this year, compared with 31 during the same period last year.
According to the KHNL News story:
Traffic investigators gather information on Fort Weaver Road near Ilima Intermediate, after an early-morning walk ends tragically for a 68-year-old woman.
"I felt terrible about that, especially, it doesn’t surprise me at all," David Syfert, Ewa Beach resident, said.
Syfert has multiple sclerosis and gets around in a wheelchair. He says he takes great care when crossing Fort Weaver Road.
"Just because traffic is coming at them, it doesn’t mean they’re gonna slow down and stop," he said. "So they have to make sure to look both ways and believe that any car that’s coming, they need to believe that car is gonna try and hit them."
Police say the woman was walking in a crosswalk when a light-colored, older-model van — possibly a white Dodge Caravan — plowed into her. The van left the scene. The victim died at the Queen’s Medical Center.
"The white line here is not an impediment to anyone running them over," Syfert said about crosswalks.
I have written several articles this year on pedestrian injury and death. Hawaii is one of the most dangerous states in the nation when it comes to pedestrian safety and despite a crack down by HPD on Oahu on jaywalking and on drivers ignoring pedestrians in crosswalks the toll continues to mount. We can do better than this by careful walking, careful driving and perhaps better warning systems because sometimes the pedestrian can be hard to see in the dark.
The Hawaii Pedestrian Crosswalk Safety Chronicles: Innovative Solution for Crosswalk Safety
Our condolences go out to the family of the deceased woman. We hope the perpetrator is apprehended and brought to justice.
A resident of Honolulu, Hawaii, Wayne Parsons is an Injury Attorney that has dedicate his life to improving the delivery of justice to the people of his community and throughout the United States. He is driven to make sure that the wrongful, careless or negligent behavior that caused his clients' injury or loss does not happen to others.
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