Jackie Kalama said her 13-year-old daughter was returning from dinner May 5 when she was killed in a pickup truck crash on Pali Highway that injured her paddling teammate and also killed the driver.
Kalama learned Tuesday that the driver, Mark Garcia, was legally drunk when he drove her daughter Kamalani and his 15-year-old daughter, Danee Garcia, home to Kailua from dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki.
Deputy Medical Examiner Mike Kobayashi said Garcia had a 0.123 blood-alcohol content, above the legal limit of 0.08.
Police said Garcia lost control of the truck, which went off the highway and hit a tree on the Nuuanu side, a half-mile north of Nuuanu Pali Drive.
"I’m really angry," said Kalama. "He took my daughter, 13 years old, to dinner, fine, but to drink and speed … You had her life in your hands, and you killed her.
"By all means, you be more responsible with somebody else’s kid," she said.
Kalama said her daughter and Danee Garcia had paddled together Saturday morning, and her daughter asked whether she could sleep over at Garcia’s house May 4. She told her mother they planned to see a movie, then have dinner.
Kalama and husband Jerry Kalama found photos on their daughter’s cellphone of the three at the Cheesecake Factory, including one of Mark Garcia with a beer bottle.
Jackie Kalama said Garcia apparently stayed at the bar while the girls went outside the restaurant and took photos, including the last ever of her smiling daughter taken at 11:56 p.m., a half-hour before the 12:25 a.m. crash.
Kalama said she is sad for Danee Garcia, who lost her father and her friend. Garcia was released from the hospital, Kalama said.
The Kalama family welcomed a steady stream of visitors Tuesday to their Kailua home since Kamalani’s death.
"My daughter had so many friends" from volleyball, paddling and school activities, Kalama said.
"She never had a set of friends, but she was everybody’s friend," she said.
"One of her teachers told me she was wiser than her years," Kalama said.
Kamalani Kalama served as a mediator, helped prevent fights between students and was a leader and role model, she said.
Kalama said her daughter’s report card from Kailua Intermediate School, where a banner with her photo hangs, recently came in the mail with a 3.6 grade-point average.
"She had such a bright future," she said.
Kamalani Kalama is also survived by sisters Myah, 27, Jerica, 26, and Kehau, 10; two nieces; and a nephew.
