Ramona P. Dela Cruz, a retired Woolworth store employee who regularly took a city bus from Hauula to Ala Moana Center and back, died Wednesday after she was struck by a vehicle while crossing the road after a bus ride.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office identified Dela Cruz on Thursday and said she died of multiple blunt force injuries from the crash.
Police said Dela Cruz, 79, of Hauula, had gotten off a city bus on Kamehameha Highway near Hauula Homestead Road at about 6:50 p.m. Wednesday and was attempting to cross behind the bus to the mauka side of the road when she was struck by a vehicle coming from the opposite direction. She was not in a crosswalk, police said.
Dela Cruz was taken in critical condition to the hospital and later died.
The driver, a 54-year-old Kailua man, was not seriously hurt.
Janice Kaaloa, Dela Cruz’s sister-in-law, described Dela Cruz as a quiet and private person.
“She liked to go to Ala Moana every day,” she said. “She would ride the same bus.”
Kaaloa, of Kona, said Dela Cruz was adopted by her aunt in Hauula, who could not have children of her own.
Kaaloa got to know Dela Cruz during her sojourns to Oahu to visit the Laie Hawaii Temple of the Mormon Church. She said Dela Cruz was a member of the Hauula ward.
Dela Cruz worked for several years at the Woolworth store at Ala Moana Center, Kaaloa said. The Woolworth store closed in 1997.
She said Dela Cruz was “pretty reserved” but loved her family.
Dela Cruz, who never married, is survived by several biological siblings and relatives from her adoptive father’s family.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been 33 traffic fatalities on Oahu, compared with 41 at this time last year. Dela Cruz’s death marks the 14th pedestrian fatality this year, compared with 20 at this time last year.
