KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Detective Tom Jones looked up toward the building where a man fell, landing on this van on Kuhio Avenue. The driver was waiting at a traffic light at Kuhio Avenue and Olohana Street when the man landed on the van.

Falling body
puts van driver
in hospital

A woman is injured when
an apparent suicide jumper
lands on her van in Waikiki

---

By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

A 32-year-old woman was critically injured yesterday when a man fell to his death in an apparent suicide from a Waikiki hotel and landed on the roof of her van that had stopped at a Kuhio Avenue stoplight, according to police.

The van driver was not breathing and had no pulse when paramedics arrived, but they were able to resuscitate her en route to the Queen's Medical Center.

Emergency medical personnel described her as in extremely critical condition. Queen's officials said this morning they had no information available about the patient or her condition.

The incident took place at about 3:30 p.m. near the intersection of Kuhio Avenue and Olohana Street between the Waikiki Gateway and Ohana Maile Sky Court hotels. The driver of the white Chevy Astro van was in the inner Diamond Head bound lane of Kuhio when the man, identified as Camaron Tuupoina, 22, of Aiea, landed on the van's roof.

Honolulu police have determined that Tuupoina fell from the 44-story Ohana Maile Sky Court, 2058 Kuhio Ave., though they have not determined from which floor. Nancy Daniels, a spokeswoman for the hotel, said this morning that Tuupoina was neither a guest nor an employee of the hotel.

Detectives said there appeared to be no sign of foul play.

Tax preparer James Hagar III was going home on his moped along Kuhio Avenue when he heard something smash into the van behind him yesterday.

Startled, Hagar turned around and saw the van's roof caved inward and a body lying on the street. He said he thought there had been a pedestrian accident but soon realized that the person on the street had struck the van after falling to his death.

"I was like, wait a minute, we were at full stop at a stoplight, how could the van run into this person?" Hagar said. "We didn't know what was going on.

"Then I saw the dent was on the top of the van ... how do you expect something like that?"

During the investigation, police closed Kuhio Avenue for several hours, from Namahana to Kalaimoku streets.

Hagar said that before he and other bystanders realized what happened, he had dropped his moped and headed for the side of the street to seek shelter near the Waikiki Gateway Hotel "in case anything else fell from the sky."

After that, he was stuck at the scene because his moped became part of the police investigation because the van had rolled over it.

"I guess after the impact the driver let go of the brakes and my moped stopped it from going any further," he said while watching police from the sidewalk. "It was pretty scary ... and sad.

"I don't know what the condition was of that person in the van, but I hope they make it."