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An apparent speeding motorcyclist struck and killed a 50-year-old woman crossing in a marked crosswalk in a particularly dangerous stretch of Nimitz Highway on Monday night in Iwilei.
The collision occurred just before 9 p.m. at the intersection of North Nimitz Highway and Sumner Street after two drivers stopped to allow the woman to cross, police said.
The 50-year-old motorcyclist was Waianae-bound when he tried to go around the other two vehicles and collided with the woman, crossing makai to mauka.
He was thrown from his motorcycle onto the roadway.
Police said speed appears to have contributed to the collision, but it is unknown whether alcohol or drugs were factors.
Both the pedestrian and motorcyclist were critically injured and taken to a hospital, where she later died and he remained.
There is no traffic signal
at the crosswalk in the one-way, three-lane section of the highway, which is dimly lit at night.
The crosswalk is particularly dangerous because
it is four-tenths of a mile
after the previous crosswalk with a signal, which is at
Nuuanu Avenue.
“So cars have a long run at speed and (it) is right after the Nimitz curve and above a rise in elevation,
so limited line of sight distance,” a Honolulu Star-
Advertiser reader commented to an online report.
The woman would
have had to walk roughly 1,200 feet to Pacific Street
to find the nearest crosswalk with lights.
The area has a lot of foot traffic, and many homeless frequent the area. The Institute for Human Services, Longs Drug Store, Ross Dress for Less and a Salvation Army store are on the mauka side of the highway.
The Honolulu Medical
Examiner’s Office did not release the woman’s identity Tuesday. The woman was the 10th person to die on Oahu’s roadways this year.
Police are continuing their investigation.
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