PHOTO COURTESY OF ROLAND OGOSHI
Family members and friends remember Keith Yamamoto as a thoughtful, outgoing person who took care of his siblings and often made friends.
Friends mourn
good Samaritan
killed changing tireThe Mililani man, 28, was hit
by a car along the shoulder of H-1
Keith Teruo Puiwa Yamamoto was on his way to his Mililani home Aug. 9 after a night of singing karaoke in Waimalu when two tires on his friend's car went flat on the H-1 freeway.
Yamamoto pulled his pickup truck ahead of the friend's car on the shoulder near the Waipahu offramp and insisted that he fix the tires. He told his friends to move to the side.
Moments later, Yamamoto was struck by a car after it crossed into the shoulder lane and pinned him against his friend's car. The cars continued forward until they struck Yamamoto's pickup truck and then hit a friend's Nissan.
Yamamoto, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 17-year-old boy was arrested for negligent homicide, and police continue to investigate the crash.
Yamamoto was remembered as a fun-loving person Friday at a private service at the Mililani Memorial Park and Mortuary in Waipio.
Family members and friends spoke publicly yesterday for the first time about Yamamoto, whom they described as a thoughtful, outgoing person who took care of his siblings and made friends wherever he went.
"He wanted to take care of his friends," said Charlie Nakama, friend and store manager of City Mill in Waimalu.
"She (the friend with the flat tires) kept saying, 'Don't worry about it.' With Keith being Keith, he didn't want to leave that person there. He took it upon himself to help change the tire," said Nakama.
"Keith was really a free spirit. He really lived for today," said Yamamoto's stepfather, Roland Ogoshi. He would put other people's needs before his own, he added.
Ogoshi returned to work at the Hawaii State Federal Credit Union in Aiea yesterday to help ease the pain.
"There are times when you sit back and can't believe that this happened to you," he said.
For the past five years, he worked at four different stores of City Mill Home Improvement Centers. At one time he was the lumber supervisor at the Waimalu store.
"Keith was Mr. Personality," Nakama said. "He touched many people.
"He was the second Bob Hope, the man with one-liners. He was very fast with his comebacks."
Keith's father, Glenn Yamamoto, said his son was involved in the varsity volleyball team at Mililani High.
Family members added that he helped coach his 7-year-old brother's Mililani soccer team, played volleyball with his 13-year-old sister and treasured the times he spent with his 18-month-old daughter, Kayla.
Glenn Yamamoto said his son recently enrolled in a pilot school at Kalaeloa to fulfill a childhood dream to fly airplanes. "He always liked planes."
Yamamoto said he is trying to cope with the loss of his son. "I still cry at times when I talk to my friends. It still hurts."
Keith Yamamoto's family members wanted to thank his employers and co-workers as well as his friends at City Mill for their support.
"They were awesome," said Ogoshi.
Yamamoto is survived by daughter Kayla Yamamoto Murayama; brother Chase Ogoshi; sister Traci Yamamoto; parents Roland and Theodora Ogoshi and Glenn and Carol Yamamoto; grandparents Charles and Josephine Nouchi Sr., Ernest and Mariko Yamane and Mildred Yamamoto; and aunts, uncles and cousins.
