Man killed in crash
loved sports, family saysHiroshi Inouye was on his daily walk
when he was hit by a car
Jonathan Inouye went looking for his father after he heard on a television news broadcast Monday that a pedestrian on Diamond Head Road was struck by a vehicle.
"He (Jonathan) said: 'Where's daddy? Isn't he home?'" said his mother, Hilda. "Usually when he (the father, Hiroshi Inouye) comes home, he goes in the back and waters the plants. Then I realized it was after 6 and he should've been home."
Hiroshi Inouye had been on his daily afternoon walk around the Diamond Head area, and Jonathan found Hiroshi's car at Fort Ruger Park, but his father was nowhere around.
Police told him the pedestrian was not carrying any identification, and advised him to go to the Queen's Medical Center. He and his family went to the hospital to find Hiroshi Inouye in critical condition.
"He never regained consciousness," Hilda Inouye said. "It was really bad."
Hiroshi Inouye, 83, died at Queen's on Monday night after he was struck by a car near Fort Ruger Park.
Police said a 54-year-old woman driving the car was traveling Koko Head-bound on Diamond Head Road about 4:55 p.m. when she reached toward the passenger's seat to grab something.
As she took her eyes off the road, her car drifted onto the right shoulder near Palaoa Place and struck Inouye, police said. Inouye suffered head and internal injuries.
He had worked as a truck driver for Meadow Gold for 40 years before he retired. He came out of retirement and worked as a part-time driver for Makiki Bake Shop for 14 years until last October.
On July 7, 1999, Inouye was driving a delivery van onto the lower ramp of Kahala Mall when bank robber Albert Batalona jumped in front of the van and told him to get out of the vehicle.
"He was thankful he wasn't shot at," Hilda said.
Batalona and three other men were later convicted for the armed robbery of the American Savings Bank in Kahala.
Inouye loved playing in a senior citizens softball league with his friends, said Hilda, who married Hiroshi in 1946.
"Softball, that was his life," she said, adding that he had played softball since his teen years at McKinley High School.
"Recently, he still went every Sunday," Hilda said. "He was outgoing. He loves his sports."
Inouye is also survived by sons James and Paul; daughters Mary Anne Smith and Claire Inouye and four grandchildren. Services are pending.