Leeward Coast residents brought flowers, stuffed animals and balloons Thursday to the Makaha bus stop where a suspected drunken driver plowed into a bus shelter, killing a 3-year-old boy and injuring his mother and three of his siblings.
"People just speed. They don’t think about anyone but themselves," said Elizabeth Lee, a Makaha resident who stopped by the scene of the Wednesday night fatality with daughter Britney Mokiao to offer their prayers.
The victim was identified as Ashton Brown, 3, who died of multiple traumatic injuries, the Medical Examiner’s Office said.
Paramedics took four other family members to the Queen’s Medical Center: a girl, 11, in critical condition with leg and head injuries; the mother, 41, in guarded condition; a boy, 7, in serious condition; and a girl, 5, in serious condition.
They were at the bus shelter fronting Makaha Beach at about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday when a Honolulu-bound Honda sedan veered off Farrington Highway and crashed into the shelter, police said.
The driver left the scene, but patrol officers stopped a badly damaged Honda sedan about two miles away near the Makaha 7-Eleven, said Lt. Robert Towne of the Honolulu Police Department’s Traffic Division.
Officers arrested the driver, a 44-year-old Lualualei man who had been paroled March 20 from the Laumaka Work Furlough Center at Oahu Community Correction Center.
The driver had met with his parole officer Tuesday and passed all his drug tests, a Department of Public Safety official said.
Court records show that he has six felony convictions and six misdemeanor convictions, including a 1986 conviction for drunken driving, car theft and criminal property damage on Maui. He was sentenced to five years in jail. In 2004 he was sentenced to a 10-year jail term for first-degree burglary and was placed on parole. He was sent back to prison in 2008 for violating his parole.
Following Wednesday’s crash, police booked the driver for investigation of first-degree negligent homicide, causing accidental death or injury and driving under the influence of alcohol. Police said speeding may also have been a factor in the crash.
Analia Barboza, who lives next door to the crash scene, was watching television in her home when she heard a loud noise. "It was like somebody blew a tree up," she said. "It rattled my house."
Barboza ran out to help and found the family hurt and in shock. After an initial scream "it was real quiet, it was eerie," she said.
She said she tried to comfort the injured children. A woman who is a nurse arrived and found one of the daughters in the brush several feet behind the bus stop, where she had been thrown by the impact, Barboza said.
The mother and five of the children were resting at the bus stop in front of Makaha Beach, Towne said. The father, who had the family’s 1-year-old child with him, was across the road when the Honda slammed into the bus shelter, Towne said.
Sources said the father may have been setting up a tent for his family.
Darlene Hein, director of community services for the Waikiki Health Center, said the family had been using the center’s homeless outreach services, but "we haven’t seen them for a couple of years. They had been in the Waikiki area."
Sophina Placencia, executive director of Waianae Community Outreach, said her organization has seen an increase in homeless people moving to the Leeward coast from Honolulu. "We have about 100 people we have never seen before who are not accessing our services," Placencia said. "Definitely the (homeless) population is increasing."
Police closed Farrington Highway from Water Street to Kili Drive until about 4 a.m. as traffic investigators examined the crime scene.
Towne said anyone who witnessed the crash should call the Honolulu Police Department Traffic Division at 529-3499.
Kim Campogan, a Leeward Coast resident, took balloons to the crash site Thursday. She brought her two preschool-age daughters.
"I told them balloons are going to heaven so the baby can play with them," Campogan said.
Star-Advertiser reporters Gregg K. Kakesako and Dan Nakaso contributed to this story.
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