Sheldon Ortego was sitting in traffic coming into town from Hawaii Kai when he got a call that his son was in a moped accident on Kalanianaole Highway on Wednesday afternoon.
Still stuck in traffic, he then got a call to go to the Queen’s Medical Center because Hunter, 17, had been brought in.
Then an alert on the single father’s cellphone said a moped crash causing the backup on the highway had turned into a fatal accident.
“I just started screaming,” Ortego said.
Before all the traffic and the telephone calls, he said, he had been on his way home to Kaimuki to meet Hunter to play basketball.
“I just wish I can have him back,” Ortego cried, grief-stricken over the death of his son.
Hunter James Laakea Ortego suffered fatal head injuries in the crash. He was on his moped headed west in the bike lane on Kalanianaole Highway on Wednesday afternoon. Police said he ran a red light and collided with a pickup truck. He was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center in critical condition and pronounced dead shortly after.
Hunter was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, and speed appeared to be a factor, police said.
On Friday, Ortego recalled that he last spoke to his son at 2 p.m. Wednesday — when Hunter asked if they could play basketball.
Ortego said he was heading home to meet Hunter when he received a call from his older son, Skye, that Hunter was in a moped accident on Kalanianaole Highway.
Ortego said he repeatedly called Hunter’s cellphone. There was no answer.
Still stuck in traffic after police shut down all lanes to conduct an investigation, Ortego said he received a call from Queen’s to inform him that he needed to come to the hospital because his son was there. When he asked about Hunter’s condition, he said the hospital told him they couldn’t discuss it over the phone.
Then he received the cellphone alert.
At Queen’s the hospital’s social worker told Ortego and other relatives that Hunter didn’t make it. “I pretty much fell to the floor at the hospital,” he said.
Ortego described Hunter as charismatic and a natural-born leader who people gravitated toward. “He had a huge network of friends,” said his father.
Ortego called his son “Munch,” short for munchkin. “When he was a baby he was so fat and cute,” he recalled. “I always called him Munch.”
Hunter, Ortego said, wasn’t allowed to ride his moped until he got his license.
Ortego said he believes Hunter was speeding to get home Wednesday before his father arrived, because the teen wasn’t allowed to leave the house without permission.
Hunter Ortego attended Kalani High School before he left to be home-schooled. He was due to graduate in about six months.
Still in disbelief over his son’s death, Ortego, crying, said, “I want to see him. I want him to come home.”
Ortego said his son’s organs will be donated in the hope that some goodwill come from the fatal accident.
In addition to his father and brother, Hunter Ortego is survived by mother Jo-Ann Ortego, uncle Tyler Ortego, paternal grandparents Clifford and Paula Ortego, and maternal grandparents Carl and Bobbi Sherry.
Services are pending.
A GoFundMe online account has been set up to assist with funeral expenses at gofundme.com/jf8srcpg.
