Family members of a man killed after he fell under a moving city bus said they are not upset with the driver, but wonder whether he could have stopped the bus.
"I’m just sad," said the man’s older sister, Sarah Bryant of Hawaii Kai. "Nobody should die that way."
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as 66-year-old Dennis Crozier. The office said he died of multiple blunt force injuries in an accident.
His grandnephew, Alika Malabey, said Crozier was the son of William Crozier, a representative of the Hawaii territorial Legislature, and the brother of former state Sen. Mike Crozier.
Police said a bus driver was pulling away from a South King Street bus stop near University Avenue at about 11:40 p.m. Wednesday when Crozier began running alongside it in the street, pounding on the rear door in an attempt to get it to stop. He lost his footing and fell under the rear tires, then was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center, where he died. Police said Crozier may have been drinking.
The bus driver, a 50-year-old Waipahu man, was not hurt.
Family said they believe Crozier was heading to his Hawaii Kai home at the time. They said bus drivers on Crozier’s route knew him and sometimes wouldn’t let him onto the bus because he would be drunk and bother the other riders. They wondered whether that happened Wednesday.
Bryant said her brother was struggling with alcohol use and was cutting back recently. He also had something to look forward to.
Malabey said Crozier recently learned he had a son. Although the son has died, Crozier was to meet his granddaughter, who is about 20 years old, for the first time around Labor Day, Malabey said.
Malabey, a political consultant, said Crozier helped raise him and several other nieces and nephews.
He said Crozier was a merchant seaman aboard vessels taking soldiers from Korea to Vietnam as a young man but contracted meningitis, which affected him permanently.
"He was kind of the guy who mentored me into becoming what I am today," Malabey said.
Malabey said Crozier enjoyed being with people on the street and wanted others to have more compassion for those less fortunate.
"He wanted to be on the streets because he felt that’s where the real people live," he said.
Nimsha Goins, 70, met Crozier while working as a cabdriver.
"He liked telling jokes and laughing," said Goins, who hangs out near the bus stop next to Kapaakea Lane, where Crozier was run over.
That night, Goins left Crozier, who had a large beer, at the bus stop, telling him not to get into any trouble.
"He was a hell of a nice guy," Goins said. "He’d give his shirt off his back if he had to."
