KHNL News reporter Minna Sugimoto reports that a teen aged boy, Ikaika Andrade, underwent surgery Monday after being hit by a car on Farrington Highway near Kimo Street in Maili Sunday night.
Andrade family members suffered through anxious hours while doctors worked to save Ikaiaka Andrade’s life in the hospital. The KHNL TV News report was chilling as Ikaika’s father explained:
"We just pray that he pull through," the crash victim’s father said. "We don’t need lose another in our family. We lost my step dad on New Year’s Day. We didn’t even bury him yet."
Ikaika Andrade, 14, was critically injured when a car, driven by a 30-year-old woman, plowed into him at about 10:20 Sunday night.
"We was having a barbecue party and my friend was leaving," John Andrade said. "My son was just checking if the road was clear for her to back out."
A witness told police the boy stepped onto the roadway. Ikaika’s family disputes that.
"He was never in the road," John Andrade said. "He was on the side of the road."
After the impact, John Andrade says he ran to his son.
"He was unconscious with a broken arm folded back. He was pretty critical, hard for a dad to see," John Andrade said. "We was calling his name, ‘Ikaika, don’t leave us.’"
John Andrade, a single father, says Ikaika is always there for his three younger siblings.
"My son just lost his mom six months ago, and he’s doing real good in school and helping me with the children," John Andrade said. "My kid, he’s a real good kid."
While investigators say speed was not a factor in this incident, people who live along busy Farrington Highway are pleading to drivers to be careful.
"Just slow down everybody," John Andrade said. "I know ’cause I’m one of them. I speed also. I’m not perfect. But we gotta slow down."
Investigators also say alcohol and drugs were not involved. The driver of the car was not hurt.
Pedestrian safety is a big concern in Hawaii. I wrote on the subject on December 18, 2008 in an article entitled "Hawaii Pedestrian’s Face Crosswalk Threats". That article contains information on pedestrian deaths and serious injuries due to automobile accidents. Hopefully Ikaika Andrade will heal and rejoin his family. Hawaii automobile accident attorneys know that pedestrian accidents and hit and run drivers are responsible for tragic losses to families like the Andrades.
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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