The driver in a fatal hit-and-run remained at large Sunday after weekend crashes left three people dead and one critically injured.
At about 3:45 p.m. Saturday a person driving a silver Honda CR-V up Aiea Heights Drive veered off the road near Hoio Street and struck a Kalihi man doing yardwork along the road, police said. The man was taken in critical condition to a hospital, where he died.
The driver fled the scene.
Leonard Letoto, an instructor at Kempo Jutsu- Kai, identified the victim as Brandon Kishida, 42. He said Kishida was a former student whom he had known for about 20 years.
“He was just a really nice guy,” Letoto said. “He was always willing to help.”
The crash happened in an area with a narrow grass strip between the road and a fence. A woman at the home said she didn’t know the man who was cutting her grass when he was struck.
Anyone with information about the driver or the location of the vehicle with a license plate number RZA 904 is asked to call police.
A man whose name was on a traffic citation with the same license plate number in May told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone that he owns a Mitsubishi, and declined further comment.
Late Saturday a 53-year-old Waianae woman was killed after she crashed into a power pole on a deadly stretch of Waianae Valley Road. Police said excessive speed, alcohol and drugs appeared to be factors in the crash, which happened about 200 feet north of Plantation Road.
Police said the woman was driving south when she lost control, drove onto the right dirt shoulder and crashed at about 11:30 p.m. She died at the scene.
In December 19-year-old Harvey Hashimoto died along the same stretch of roadway, about 20 feet south of Saturday’s crash. Police said he lost control while traveling south, hit an oncoming vehicle and severed a utility pole.
A Waianae Valley Road resident who declined to give her name said the stretch of roadway has seen numerous crashes and can be dangerous because there is no painted centerline, and the slight curve in the road can cause inattentive drivers to lose control.
The female driver in Saturday’s crash was the 31st traffic fatality on Oahu this year, compared with 30 at this time last year.
Also on Saturday a man was killed in West Maui after losing control of a Ford F-150 pickup on Hono- apiilani Highway. The man was driving south when he lost control, hit a guardrail, traveled across the oncoming lane and slammed into a second guardrail, Maui police said.
The truck overturned and landed on the driver, who was not wearing a seat belt, police said. He was the only person in the truck and died at the scene. The crash happened at about 9:30 p.m. in front of Olowalu Store.
He was the 11th traffic fatality this year on Maui, compared with 15 at this time last year.
On Sunday a man in his 50s was in critical condition after he crashed a truck into a pole and was ejected at about 5:30 a.m. near Kapolei and Kualakai parkways, an Emergency Medical Services report said. Paramedics treated the man and took him to a hospital.
