Passenger dies after
car slams into house
Police are searching for the driver of a stolen Acura Integra who crashed into a Pearl City home early yesterday morning and abandoned his passenger, who later died.
Francis Ching awoke at about 4 a.m. to the sound of a speeding car nearing his house at the corner of Hoomoana Street and Waimano Home Road, a major thoroughfare.
The car slammed through the wooden carport at the front of his family's rented home at 895 Hoomoana St., shattering glass from the car's windshield across the lawn.
Ching, 43, ran outside and found the white two-door Integra had bored through the carport and into his Datsun pickup truck, which pushed a Toyota Corolla parked next to it against the wall of the house.
A young man was crawling out of the driver's side window.
"He said, 'My friend was driving and got hurt,' and he went dig out (took off)," Ching said. "What a sorry guy."
Ching said the injured man lying in the passenger's seat was unresponsive.
"In the meantime the guy was making his getaway," he said. "I should have grabbed the guy. All the neighbors came out but nobody wen' stop him."
The man, in his early 20s, was last seen walking mauka on Waimano Home Road.
The passenger, a 38-year-old man, was taken in critical condition to Pali Momi Medical Center, where he died, police said.
Ching's 68-year-old mother, Frances, was asleep in the bedroom at the front of the house.
"Good thing two cars were in the garage," said Ching's father, Richard. "If had only one car, would ricochet into my wife's bedroom."
Police said the Acura Integra was stolen March 2 from a Mililani shopping center.
Witnesses said the driver was traveling makai on Waimano Home Road, attempted to turn left on Hoomoana and took out a traffic light before hitting the carport.
Neighbor Rachel Cabato, 21, saw the driver limping.
"He was hurt but he just wanted to leave," she said. "He just left his friend there. You don't do that. Thank God it didn't hit the house."
Residents said speeding has been a problem on Waimano Home Road.
Tehani Abalos, 22, who lives across the street from the Chings, said her family built a wall to protect their house from vehicles.
"One guy hit a (concrete) bus bench that made a hole in our house wall," she said. "It's terrible, this speeding. We just wait for the loud bang. Everybody complains but they don't do anything.
The driver is described as in his late teens to early 20s, 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall, weighing 160 pounds, with wavy or curly hair, wearing a white T-shirt and gray pants.
Anyone with information on the driver is asked to call Officer Tyrone Bush at 529-3499. Anonymous calls may be made to CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on cell phones.