An 86-year-old woman died Thursday morning after being struck by a car as she walked on a South King Street sidewalk, Honolulu police said.
The fatality marks the second time on Oahu this week that a pedestrian walking on a sidewalk was struck and killed by a car.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office identified the victim in Thursday’s crash as Elsie Cabanatan of Honolulu. According to police, Cabanatan was walking Ewa at 2065 S. King St. near Wiliwili Street at about 8:45 a.m. when a man in his 70s driving a Lexus sedan rear-ended a truck and drove past the truck on its driver’s side. He then careened onto the makai sidewalk, striking Cabanatan and three parked cars in a nearby shopping plaza.
Cabanatan was taken in critical condition with multiple injuries to the Queen’s Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Police said the driver had borrowed the car from a friend. They said alcohol is not believed to be a factor and that the driver did not appear to have a medical episode causing the crash.
They were investigating whether excessive speed was a factor.
Police also said that they have surveillance video from a nearby business to review.
They declined to comment on whether it appeared that the driver maneuvered the Lexus around the truck and onto the sidewalk deliberately or if he lost control of the car after rear-ending the truck.
The incident is the seventh pedestrian fatality on Oahu in 2015, compared with 10 at this time in 2014.
The other pedestrian fatality occurred Sunday. In that incident, 81-year-old Jose Malapit was heading toward his Neal Street home in Wahiawa, part of his daily walk, when he was struck by a 2006 Nissan sedan near California Avenue and North Cane Street.
Police say the Nissan veered off the roadway and hit a van and traffic sign before striking Malapit on the sidewalk.
This year the Hawaii Bicycling League, an Oahu bicycle advocacy group, is holding vigils in the wake of pedestrian deaths as well as brainstorming sessions on ways to prevent additional deaths at accident sites.
League Executive Director Chad Taniguchi said it would be difficult to prevent seemingly freak occurrences in which cars drive up onto the sidewalk, as has happened in the past two fatal incidents. Much of the discussion for preventing a repeat of Thursday’s accident might hinge on whether police determine that speed was a factor, he said.
With an average of about two fatalities a month on Oahu so far this year, the group has found it daunting to conduct a memorial and brainstorming session for each pedestrian victim, he said.
"We’ve been expending a lot of time and energy," Taniguchi said Thursday. "It’s really hard to keep up."
