An 87-year-old Haiku, Maui, woman died over the weekend after she was hit by a sedan driven by her 11-year-old grandson.
The incident happened as the quarterly social for the 442nd Veterans Club was breaking up Saturday at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center in Kahului.
Police said the boy was reversing a Mitsubishi Galant out of a parking stall at about 12:50 p.m. as the woman was standing nearby when the driver’s side door hit the woman and knocked her to the ground.
The car continued backing up until it hit a Honda Element stopped to the rear.
Police said the woman was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in critical condition. The boy, of Wailuku, and the driver of the Honda were not hurt.
Hiroshi Arisumi, who was attending the event, said an acquaintance called him Sunday and told him the woman had died. A police spokesman was not available Sunday to confirm.
Arisumi said the woman, whom he only knew by her last name, Saito, was friendly and that her late husband had served with him in the 232nd Combat Engineer Company, part of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II.
He said he didn’t see the incident, but heard from others that the boy was trying to start the car when it began moving.
"He wasn’t driving," he said. "He just started the car and the thing moved."
He said when he went outside, the woman was already lying on the ground.
"It’s really too bad," he said.
Mark Mizuno, whose father served in the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion during WWII, was cleaning up inside when he heard someone calling for help.
Mizuno, an MRI technician, went outside and saw a woman lying on the ground with people around her. He ran to help and took the woman’s pulse.
He said the woman had abrasions on the back of her head and on her elbow and wasn’t responsive, but her pulse and breathing were normal and she opened her eyes.
"It looked like she got pushed back somehow and just landed on her back and probably banged her head," he said.
Mizuno said a boy was standing nearby, crying and saying that it was his fault.
Mizuno said he thought the boy was in high school, and didn’t know at the time that he was only 11.
Someone said the boy was the woman’s grandson, he said. The woman’s son — the boy’s father — was also at her side, anxiously holding her and asking for help, Mizuno said.
The incident happened a day after a 1-year-old boy was killed by a pickup on the Veterans of Foreign Wars property in Kihei.
Police said a 30-year-old Pukalani man was reversing a Chevy Silverado when he struck the boy at about 7 p.m. Friday. The boy was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where he later died. The driver was not hurt.
KOKUA LINE: The column will return in August.
