GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Maui police have impounded a burned van suspected of being the vehicle that struck 20-year-old Michelle Rosa.Maui man interviewed
about hit-and-run
WAILUKU >> Maui police investigators have interviewed a 39-year-old man who owns a van suspected of leaving the scene of a hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a pedestrian in Central Maui.
The man turned himself in to traffic investigators at the Wailuku police station yesterday afternoon.
Acting Sgt. Ericlee Correa said investigators have enough evidence to say the man was the operator of the vehicle at the time it hit 20-year-old Michelle L. Rosa, of Kahului.
Correa said the man was released pending further investigation because police still need to gather more information and reconstruct the crash scene.
Rosa, who was flown to Oahu for treatment, remained in critical condition yesterday evening at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu.
Earlier yesterday, the van suspected of striking Rosa was found abandoned and engulfed in flames at Holomua Road near the old Maui High School.
Police Lt. Jeffrey Tanoue said Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. security reported at 7 a.m. yesterday that the vehicle, a 1989 Mazda MPV van, also had damage on its front.
Tanoue said the crash damages to the van were consistent with vehicle pieces left at the hit-and-run incident.
He said investigators also received calls yesterday morning identifying the vehicle's owner.
Tanoue said the callers did not see the accident, but saw damage to the vehicle on the night of the crash.
The fire that burned the car also damaged five acres of sugar cane, causing an estimated $30,000 in losses, Tanoue said.
Rosa, who was not in a crosswalk, was walking toward the ocean across Kahului Beach Road near the breakwater when a vehicle going north struck her on the outer lane at about 8:52 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
Based on pieces of the vehicle left at the scene, traffic investigators had been looking for a 1989-1992 Mazda MPV van and witnesses who may have seen the incident.
