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Pedestrian, 86, dies after car careens onto S. King sidewalk

CHAD TANIGUCHI
Honolulu police investigate an accident at South King Street near Wiliwili Street Thursday morning.

An 86-year-old woman died Thursday morning after being struck by a car as she walked on a South King Street sidewalk, Honolulu police said. 

The fatality marks the second time on Oahu this week that a pedestrian walking on a sidewalk was struck and killed by a car.

The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office identified the victim in Thursday’s crash as Elsie Cabanatan, of Honolulu. According to police, Cabanatan was walking Ewa-bound at 2065 South King near Wiliwili Street at about 8:45 a.m. when a man in his 70s driving a Lexus sedan rear-ended a truck, drove past the truck on its driver side. He then careened onto the makai sidewalk, striking Cabanatan and three parked cars in a nearby shopping plaza.

Cabanatan was taken in critical condition with multiple injuries to The Queen’s Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

Police said the driver had borrowed the car from a friend. They said alcohol is not believed to be a factor and that the driver did not appear to have a medical episode causing the crash. They were investigating whether speed was a factor.

Police also said that they have surveillance video to review from a nearby business.

They declined to comment on whether it appeared that the driver maneuvered the Lexus around the truck and onto the sidewalk deliberately or if he lost control of the car after rear-ending the truck.

The incident is the seventh pedestrian fatality on Oahu in 2015, compared with 10 at this time in 2014.

The other pedestrian fatality occurred on Sunday. In that incident, 81-year-old Jose Malapit was heading toward his Neal Street home in Wahiawa, part of his daily walk, when he was struck by a 2006 Nissan sedan near California Avenue and North Cane Street.

Police say the Nissan veered off the roadway and hit a van and traffic sign before striking Malapit on the sidewalk.

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