Editor’s note: The alarming number of pedestrian accidents has prompted increased efforts to make Oahu’s streets safer and shed its reputation as one of the deadliest for pedestrians in the nation — particularly for the elderly. Throughout 2015, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser will track the number of pedestrian deaths, examine issues that may be contributing to the problem, and tell the stories of those who lose their lives.

In February, Clarita Ocol was just starting to enjoy a well-deserved retirement. Then her life was cut short in a Kalihi crosswalk.

The 67-year-old Oahu resident had raised six children by herself after being widowed at an early age. At times she had worked as many as three jobs to support her family, including at Zippy’s preparing food.

In the months before Ocol died "she was just getting used to staying home," daughter Melodie Ocol recalled Friday. She would wake up early just as she had for years, except now, instead of going to work, Clarita Ocol would take daily walks in the neighborhood to exercise.

Around 6 a.m. on a rainy Feb. 4, Ocol was only about a block away from home on her morning walk crossing King Street when a driver in his 40s struck her with a Chevy pickup truck. She died later that day at the Queen’s Medical Center. Drugs and alcohol were not believed to be factors in the accident.

Ocol was one of 25 pedestrians on Oahu killed in traffic accidents in 2014 — that’s six more than in 2013. The number of pedestrian deaths in traffic accidents has increased in the past three years while the island’s total traffic death count has remained about the same.

In 2014, the island’s aging and senior population represented most of those pedestrian fatalities. A Star-Advertiser analysis of those cases, in which 23 of the 25 victims’ ages were available, found the median age to be 70. Only four of the pedestrian deaths this past year were under the age of 50.

The new year was only 2 days old when the island saw its first fatal pedestrian accident: On Friday evening, as a rainstorm swept across Oahu, a 45-year-old woman was struck by an SUV while jaywalking on Kalihi Street near North Nimitz Highway.

She later died at Queen’s. The accident was one of two that night in which pedestrians were hit.

Then, at 6:38 p.m. Saturday, an 80-year-old man was hit by a car as he was walking at the intersection of Young and Kaheka streets. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital in critical condition.

The victims were more than just yearly statistics — they were friends, family members and spouses.

Ocol loved watching Korean television dramas and shopping. She had endured two open-heart surgeries earlier in life, and she returned to work full-time soon after both procedures, Melodie Ocol said.

Clarita Ocol, who came to Oahu from her native Philippines in her early 20s, never asked for help from her family, Melodie Ocol added.

"We miss her terribly," Ocol added in an email Friday. We’re "so saddened that we weren’t able to take care of her and repay her for giving us the life we have today."

More than half of Oahu’s fatal pedestrian accidents this past year — 15 — took place either during darkness or twilight. About a third of those accidents, including Ocol’s, took place in Kalihi.

Statewide, the growth of Hawaii’s senior population continues to outpace that of its younger age groups, and Hawaii’s senior population growth also outpaces the nation’s as a whole, government figures show. For years now, the Aloha State has been flagged as one of the most dangerous and deadly places for senior pedestrians.

From 2007 to 2011 Hawaii led the U.S. in the rate of fatalities involving pedestrians 65 or older, at 5 deaths a year per every 100,000 seniors, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study found.

It’s even more dangerous for pedestrians in Hawaii 75 or older, who have a fatality rate of 9.75 per 100,000, Smart Growth America’s "Dangerous by Design 2014" report found.

"The proportion of our population that will be 65-plus and 85-plus will continue to grow," AARP Hawaii communications director Bruce Bottorff said Friday of Oahu’s 2014 pedestrian fatality numbers. "It’s not going away. One year does not a trend make, but it is certainly a sober tally … and one that doesn’t pose any easy solution."

Oahu saw its pedestrian fatality rate climb last year despite a statewide "Pedestrian Safety month" launched by former Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Aug. 6, and a similar pedestrian safety campaign also launched last summer in Kalihi by Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

The city in 2014 also rolled out three "Complete Streets" demonstration projects in Moiliili, Aiea and Kailua. Transportation officials redesigned isolated stretches of road there, aiming to make them more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists.

It’s part of a push to eventually make Oahu’s roads safer for pedestrians. Those first projects cost just under $200,000, according to city transportation officials.

"A growing number of people are beginning to realize that you can’t drive forever … and yet they need to maintain their independence and mobility" for errands like going to the store and picking up prescriptions, Bottorff said. Senior pedestrians on Oahu who are hurt or killed are victims of an infrastructure "that’s not quite ready to deal with them safely," he added.

In Kalihi, where Ocol was killed, the city installed brighter street lights to help better illuminate the area.

Honolulu Police Department officials last week declined to release investigation reports into Ocol’s accident and two others that happened in 2014 along the same stretch of King Street because criminal charges are being pursued in all three cases, they said.

HPD officials further declined last week to provide names, ages or genders of any of the 2014 pedestrian victims because they said they wanted to verify first whether there were criminal cases attached to those fatal accidents. However, the Star-Advertiser was able to piece together most of that information from its reporting throughout 2014.

HPD can issue citations and educate the public, but ultimately it can’t control drivers’ decisions and behavior once they get behind the wheel, police Lt. Stason Tanaka said Tuesday. The department can’t control pedestrian behavior either, he added.

"What really will make a big difference is if each motorist or pedestrian takes responsibility for their own safety, as well as the other people who use the road," Tanaka said. Pedestrians should always try to make eye contact with oncoming drivers to make sure they’re seen, he added.

According to new numbers reported last month by the NHTSA, pedestrian deaths declined 1.7 percent across the U.S. to 4,735 in 2013. Despite the slight decrease compared to the year before, that 2013 total was still 15 percent higher than a record low of 4,109 pedestrian deaths nationwide in 2009, the agency reported.

Meanwhile, back on Oahu, Ocol said her family has obtained an attorney to consider potential legal action on behalf of her mother but they haven’t filed suit yet. Their attorney is still weighing the matter, she said.

"I guess he has a lot of cases on King Street, with pedestrians being hit," Ocol said.

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Star-Advertiser reporter Rob Shikina contributed to this report.