Reversing SUV kills girl, 2, injures boy, 4

A Punaluu woman backs into the children in a driveway

A 2-year-old girl died yesterday after she and her 4-year-old brother were struck by a sport utility vehicle backing out of the family's unpaved driveway in Punaluu.

The girl was identified as Teysia Aku by the Honolulu Medical Examiner's office. She was pronounced dead on arrival yesterday morning at Castle Hospital, where the boy is in serious condition, said Bryan Cheplic, Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokesman.

The call for an ambulance came at 10:32 a.m., after a 24-year-old Punaluu woman backed a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer into the children in a driveway at 53-224 Kamehameha Highway, police reported. The girl had serious head injuries, police said.

According to a woman who lives in the same cluster of rental homes near Punaluu Beach, called the Countryside Cabins, the children's father was working on a car and the two children were playing in the yard.

"She (the girl) was a little angel," said the woman, who refused to give her name, saying she was too upset.

The driver of the Trailblazer that struck the children is very upset about the accident, said Clarence Davis, who lives nearby. Davis said the woman, who is a member of his family, is being comforted by relatives.

Davis said the parents of the children also have an infant.

Two Hawaii youngsters have been killed in recent driveway accidents. Last month, a 2-year-old Big Island girl was run over in the yard of an Orchidland home. In December, a 30-year-old Kaneohe father accidentally backed his vehicle over his 1-year-old son in a driveway.