An Oahu grand jury indicted the alleged driver in a freak hit-and-run crash on the H-1 freeway that killed a 23-year-old woman.

The indictment, returned yesterday, charges Brian Kaneshiro with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Emmergine Fuamoli was hit as she emerged from a vehicle that had crashed minutes earlier into the freeway median. She died from multiple internal injuries.

The unusual series of events started when Fuamoli was the front-seat passenger in a car traveling west on the freeway on Oct. 12, 2008. Police said she grabbed the steering wheel during an argument with the driver.

The car crashed into the median 62 feet past the Pali Highway overpass. No one in the car, including Fuamoli, the 26-year-old male driver or a rear-seat passenger, was seriously injured.

However, after the car came to a stop, police said, Fuamoli stepped out of the vehicle and was struck by passing car.

The driver of the second car fled, but police found him on Houghtailing Street.

Deputy Prosecutor Vickie Kapp said Kaneshiro tried to persuade someone else to take the blame, but his friends identified him as the driver. Police also found Kaneshiro's DNA on a driver's-side airbag, Kapp said.

Kaneshiro was on federal supervised release at the time after spending 28 months in prison for embezzling more than $700,000 from Bank of Hawaii while working as a part-time teller.