Tour bus kills SUV driver before crashing into home

Police arrest the driver after his bus breaks a fence and slams into a house in Kahaluu

ONE MAN DIED and Kamehameha Highway traffic came to a standstill yesterday after a tour bus driver apparently crossed into oncoming traffic, hit a sport utility vehicle and crashed into a Kahaluu home, police said.

The 42-year-old driver of the black SUV died at the scene after his car was crushed by the town-bound Roberts Hawaii tour bus. A neighbor of the man said he was married and that his wife is pregnant.

The 49-year-old bus driver was arrested for suspicion of negligent homicide, said Honolulu police Sgt. Lorenzo Ridela.

Speed did not appear to be a factor, and the driver was to undergo a breathalyzer and blood test last night, Ridela said.

The accident, which happened at about 2:30 p.m. on Kamehameha Highway, backed up traffic for six hours during the King Kamehameha Day holiday. Traffic was contra-flowed during the investigation, but the road was not fully reopened until after 8 p.m.

After colliding with the SUV, the bus crashed through a chain-link fence, went over a knee-high rock wall and slammed into the three-bedroom home at 47-739 Kamehameha Highway.

"I was reading, and then I heard a strange sound," said resident Rosita Pinkerton, 58. "By the time I said that to myself, it just hit, boom!"

The bus chopped a portion of the home's roof and damaged the wall, outside and inside.

Pinkerton, who was uninjured but shaken, said the impact "shook the house" and sent pieces of drywall flying onto her face.

Kari Hill, 33, a neighbor of the victim, said the man was married and that his wife was pregnant.

"He lived half a mile up the road from here," Hill said, sobbing. "He was on his way home from surfing."

Traffic was heavy in both directions as police closed the highway's two lanes between Pulama and Waihee to investigate the incident and remove the bus. Area residents quickly gathered on the road's edge and above hills.

Fifteen-year-old Kalani Souza, who lives 10 houses down from where the accident happened, said he spent two hours in a car coming home from football practice in Kaneohe.

Kim Gonzales, who lives across the street from Pinkerton and rushed outside after hearing "an explosion," called for better safeguards to homes near a highway where residents say people speed, especially at night.

"It wouldn't hurt to have a guardrail around here," Gonzales said.

Pinkerton nodded and said, "If it wasn't for that rock wall, I'd be dead."