The driver of a car that crashed into a bus shelter in Waipahu last year, killing an elderly woman and injuring another, had been drinking before he mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal, said Vicky Kapp, deputy prosecutor.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging Richtenson Alyphios, 42, of Waipahu with first-degree negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident involving death and injury. His bail is $25,000.

Kapp said that after the August 2010 fatal crash, a breathalyzer measured Alyphios’ blood alcohol content at 0.05. The legal threshold for drunken driving is 0.08.

She said Alyphios was driving to a liquor store to buy alcohol when the 8:30 a.m. crash occurred. She said police found beer cans in the car.

After the crash, Kapp said, Alyphios and his wife, who was riding in the car, walked away from the scene until witnesses stopped them 300 feet away.

Witnesses said Alyphios’s car jumped the curb on Farrington Highway near Paiwa Street and hit the bus shelter.

Benita Duldulao, 68, died in the crash. The car ended up on top of her.

Firefighters spent nearly two hours stabilizing the shelter in order to lift off the car.

Her family said Duldulao was waiting for the bus to go to church.

Witnesses said the crash threw the only other person in the bus shelter, a 67-year-old woman, into the air. An ambulance took her to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.

Alyphios had been wanted since April for failing to pay nearly $1,500 in penalties in a May 2010 drunken-driving case.

On May 12, 2010, police stopped Alyphios and cited him for operating a vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant, driving while possessing an open liquor container and driving without a valid driver’s license.

He pleaded no contest to the charges on Sept. 15, 2010, three weeks after the crash that killed Duldulao.

Honolulu District Judge Lono Lee fined Alyphios $1,000 and ordered him to pay $486 in fees and assessments.

Alyphios would have also been subject to a mandatory one-year license suspension if he had had a driver’s license.

Judge Clarence Pacarro issued a bench warrant April 20 when Alyphios failed to satisfy the terms of his sentence.