An 83-year-old retired registered nurse was killed by a city garbage truck that was backing out of a cul-de-sac Friday morning near her Newtown Estates subdivision home in Aiea.
A city spokesman said garbage trucks often reverse out of short, dead-end streets.
"Those areas are too narrow for the truck to go in and turn around," said Markus Owens, city Department of Environmental Services spokesman. So rather than hit cars and mailboxes, the truck drivers pick up a load, then reverse, he said.
Honolulu police Lt. Robert Towne said the garbage truck had just picked up a trash can and was backing up when it hit the woman and ran her over.
Emergency Medical Services said the accident occurred at 8:53 a.m., and the woman was taken in extremely critical condition to the Queen’s Medical Center, where she died. Police said she had numerous leg and internal injuries.
Officials believe the woman was crossing the street at the corner of Kupuwao Place and Kupukupu Street. Police said she was crossing Kupuwao and was struck by the truck reversing on Kupuwao.
Owens said Friday was recyclables day in the area, and only one blue bin was out on Kupuwao Place.
However, he could not explain how the truck, which has arms for automatic trash bin pickup on its right side, could pick up bins on the left side of the road if it simply drives into a cul-de-sac and reverses.
"That’s a shock," said Deeter William.
The accident took place in front of William’s home while he was at work.
"I’ve never seen anybody (garbage truck drivers) back up," he said. "There would have been no cars on the street (at the time)."
Neighbors noted that the streets in the area are wide, and could not understand how such an accident could have occurred.
Neighbors said the woman walked around the cul-de-sac she lived on.
Kang Hee Matsumoto said, "Every morning she exercised. She walked."
The woman was healthy and always cleaned her yard, she said. "She’s really independent," Matsumoto said, usually declining help offered.
John Tokunaga said the woman had lived on Kupuwao Place for more than 20 years and was his McKinley High School classmate.
Others described her as a nice person, intelligent, with a good heart.
The city has placed the 52-year-old refuse truck driver, of Mililani, on paid administrative leave, as is customary.
He has been with the city for 22 years, 14 of those years with the Refuse Division, and is "pretty shaken up about it, Owens said.
The 2012 Automaster city refuse truck was impounded and taken out of service, he said.
The driver submitted to a blood test, a sample drawn within a couple hours of the incident, Owens said, but he did not know the results.
Police said this was the 10th Oahu traffic fatality this year compared with seven at the same time last year.
Owens said another driver in a different truck completed the route Friday morning.
