Victim hit by vehicle at Don Quijote is ID'd

The Honolulu Medical Examiner's office identified the Honolulu woman who died after a vehicle hit her in the Don Quijote parking lot as Sue Sumiko Sawamoto.

Sawamoto, 84, died yesterday of head injuries from the accident at the Ala Moana-area business, the medical examiner's office said.

Police said a 68-year-old man driving an Isuzu Rodeo sport utility vehicle hit Sawamoto while turning right from Kaheka Street into the lot at 8:48 a.m. Tuesday.

Sawamoto had been walking across the lot entrance at the time, police said. She died at the hospital. The driver was not injured.

Big Isle man run over as he lay on roadside

A 59-year-old man who died after a car ran over him as he lay on the road Tuesday night was identified by Big Island police as Malcolm G. Nelson of Volcano.

The accident occurred after 9:45 p.m. on Highway 11 at the 20-mile marker in Puna.

Just before the accident, a police officer was conducting a traffic stop in the Volcano-bound lane of Highway 11 near Hirano Store. Police said occupants of a white Jeep Wrangler, possibly tourists, stopped to inform the officer that a man was lying nearby on the shoulder of the Hilo-bound lane with his head at the white shoulder line.

When the officer went to check with his flashing blue light on, a 62-year-old Mountain View woman driving a two-door sedan in the Hilo-bound lane pulled over to the shoulder and ran over Nelson, police said.

He was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where he died at 12:30 a.m. yesterday. Police said Nelson appeared to have been drinking.

Police have ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death and opened a negligent homicide investigation.

This is the 22nd traffic fatality so far this year compared with 25 at this time last year.