Tour bus jumps
curb, hits 3 tourists

One of the three is in serious
condition after the bus veered
to avoid a vehicle

Three Japanese visitors were taken to the Queen's Medical Center yesterday after a minibus plowed into them on a Waikiki sidewalk.

At 9:36 a.m., police said, a 42-year-old Honolulu man was traveling Diamond Head-bound in a Reliable Shuttle minibus in the center lane of Kalakaua Avenue, just after Kaiulani Avenue, when he was cut off by another vehicle. Police said the minibus driver veered left, lost control and drove over the curb fronting the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

The minibus struck a 2-foot retaining wall and three people on the sidewalk just before the Waikiki Police Substation.

The victims, two women and a man, were taken to Queen's. Police said a 40-year-old woman was in critical condition. A 52-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were in serious condition but later upgraded to fair. The 23-year-old had bruises and was released from the hospital, according to Jessica Rich, president and executive director of the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, which assists tourists who are crime or accident victims.

The accident happened near the same area as a similar crash last year that killed a Japanese woman and injured her newlywed husband.

In yesterday's accident the 23-year-old woman told a society volunteer that she was walking with friends on the sidewalk when she was struck by the minibus.

The woman, who is from Osaka, spent four days in Hawaii and is scheduled to return to Japan today, Rich said. The woman said she does not know the two other victims, according to Rich.

The other victims are both staying in the same Waikiki hotel and know each other, but Rich was unsure of their relationship. "When she awoke, she had some concerns of where the male was," Rich said. Both are scheduled to return to Japan tomorrow.

"Whether they are well enough is another matter. We're doing all we can at this time to assist the victims in any way that we can," she added.

Part of the retaining wall that broke off at the time of impact was on the roadway while police shut down Kalakaua Avenue between Kaiulani and Uluniu avenues for a few hours as they investigated.

Witnesses and bystanders flocked to the scene to assist the victims.

Jarrett Talamoa of Landscape Hawaii Inc. was monitoring traffic as fellow crew members trimmed coconut trees on Kalakaua Avenue when he saw a car swerve into the minibus' lane. The minibus driver veered to the mauka side of the roadway, he said.

The driver looked panicked and tried to get off the curb, but it was too late, he said.

The three tourists were near a fire hydrant next to the retaining wall when they were struck, he said. The man "went flying" before he landed near one of the coconut trees on the mauka side of the sidewalk, Talamoa added.

He said the vehicle that cut off the minibus took off.

"The car didn't stop or anything," he said. "Everybody was lying down on the ground."

The 42-year-old minibus driver did not want to comment. The company, Reliable Shuttle and Tours, could not be reached for comment. Police said there were no passengers in the minibus.

The driver gave a statement to police, who are still investigating the accident.

On May 26, 2004, a 62-year-old Palolo man plowed into a group of pedestrians in Waikiki along Kalakaua Avenue near the site of yesterday's crash.

Joseph Puuohau Jr. was driving a 2004 Ford pickup truck when it jumped the curb near the Sheraton Moana Surfrider and plowed along the sidewalk. Puuohau, who had his driver's license revoked in 1998, stopped just before the Waikiki Police Substation.

Hikari Ishiyama, 24, of Kasatsu, Japan, was killed in the crash. She was married days earlier and was on her honeymoon in Waikiki. Her husband, Hiroyuki Ishiyama, sustained head injuries and required four stitches.