Tiny shoes, broken hearts brand scene of accident

Old pay stubs and parking tickets, a little girl’s sparkly red shoes, size 6, an armrest and a badly mangled windshield with bright red blood pooled in the center.

Those were some of the items on the grass along Farrington Highway in Nanakuli Sunday morning after two vehicles collided head-on during the night, killing three people, including a baby. The crash seriously injured five others.

Lt. Bobby Towne of the police department’s vehicular homicide section said a silver Honda was headed east on Farrington Highway around 8:30 p.m. when it came over the hill just after Piliokahi Avenue at high speed, crossed over the central median and slammed into a Nissan pickup truck headed west.

The Honda, driven by 20-year-old Fa’aolataga Kitiona, split in half upon impact, Towne said.

Kitiona survived and was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center in critical condition.

His daughter, 1 1⁄2-year-old Kawehikulani Kitiona, 18-year-old girlfriend, Talofa "Lofa" Mene, and a man in his 30s died in the crash.

The 42-year-old woman driving the pickup truck and her three passengers — a woman, 49, and two girls, ages 14 and 3 — were all were taken to the hospital in serious condition, police said.

Towne said speeding and alcohol use are suspected factors in the crash.

"It’s just heartbreaking that just simple things could have been (done) and would (have prevented) this whole tragedy," Mene’s brother, Lokahi Cuban, said Sunday outside the family’s home in Pauoa Valley. "The other family in the other vehicle in the crash being sent to the hospital, all of that could have been avoided by, you know, just simple things: If you drink, don’t drive."

Cuban continued, "The hardest thing for me is my niece was only a year and a half, and she didn’t have a voice, you know what I mean," he said, his voice cracking and eyes filling with tears. "She couldn’t tell her dad, ‘Don’t get behind the wheel,’ if he was drinking; ‘Dad, don’t speed.’ She couldn’t say none of that. … An innocent life was just cut short for just something senseless like that."

Large family gatherings in Hawaii are rarely a quiet affair, but only soft whispers, the bounce of a basketball and an occasional song or child’s voice could be heard outside the Pauoa home as Mene’s relatives packed into the driveway to comfort and embrace one another.

"My mom’s taking it real hard," Cuban said. "That was her baby. It’s super difficult."

Kawehikulani "was a happy, happy baby," Cuban said. "Like really happy. So was my sister. My sister was always active, you know, always had to do something. My niece — only certain days you wouldn’t catch a smile on that girl’s face. It had to be very bad days."

Cuban played for reporters a slideshow that he put together on his computer early Sunday morning when he couldn’t sleep after hearing about the deadly crash. Photos of the young family of three scrolled across the screen to Rascal Flatts’ song "I Won’t Let Go."

A grinning baby Kawehikulani sitting in a blue plastic pool is the first picture to pop up as the song begins: "It’s like a storm, that cuts a path, it breaks your will, it feels like that."

CUBAN said his sister was a Polynesian dancer who loved the outdoors.

Mene’s family was excited for her because she had graduated from Roosevelt High School earlier this year, Cuban said, adding that Kitiona graduated from Kapolei High School last year. The two had been together for 2 1/2 to 3 years, he said.

"I have a lot of hatred inside me for my sister’s boyfriend, but then I can’t do anything about it now," he said. "I bet he regrets doing what he done, being that his whole family just vanished in the blink of a second for something senseless."

Pieces of Kitiona’s Honda were scattered alongside the highway. Among the largest were a bumper and the passenger seat with its side air bag deployed; among the smallest, the plastic tab that releases the hood of the car.

A pile of shoes, a broken plastic water bottle, a sock, a little girl’s striped gray jacket and many other items were also left at the scene. Bits of colorful snowman wrapping paper, pink tissue paper and ripped-up boxes and bags from Victoria’s Secret littered the leeward brush.

A carload of family members stopped by the scene with black trash bags Sunday morning to collect the personal items and pick up debris along the roadside, leaving behind a Disney princesses balloon and a few bouquets of flowers.

Just a few feet away sat a faded tribute to 34-year-old Margaret Lavin of Mililani, who died in a crash at that same spot earlier this year when she was headed home from a Super Bowl party.

Lavin left behind a fiance and five children, said family members who stopped by the scene Sunday to pay their respects.

"We were calling like all our friends and family to see who it was because we were just hoping it wasn’t anyone that was in our family," Mae Day said. "I don’t know what it is about over here. A lot of people (are) passing away over here."