Wreck hurts girl,
snarls traffic

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
A girl sitting on the steps of the fountain in front of
Bank of Hawaii was critically injured this morning when
a car involved in an accident hurtled onto the sidewalk
and ran into the fountain.

A car rambles through a busy
downtown intersection this morning
and hits a 12-year-old

By Linda Aragon
Star-Bulletin

A 12-year-old girl was critically injured and traffic was snarled for hours after a car slammed through a busy downtown intersection, veered onto a sidewalk and plowed into the wall of a fountain this morning.

Dexter Mitte, who was working at a Bishop Street construction site at 8:15 a.m., said he heard a loud crash when a Buick Riviera hit a Jaguar at the intersection of Bishop and King streets.

The Jaguar slammed into another car, causing a chain reaction.

Then the driver of the Buick "turned right and just floorboarded that car," Mitte said.

Sgt. Richard Stensgaard of the police traffic division said the Riviera veered to the right, struck a signal post on the sidewalk of the Bank of Hawaii building, pushed the pole about 80 feet onto the sidewalk and struck the side of a water fountain.

A girl who was sitting on the steps of the fountain was struck by the car, police said.

"I heard someone screaming," said John Healey, who ran to the bank from a nearby storefront. He said he saw the girl in the fountain.

Bank of Hawaii employee Rowena Ibia said the girl's father was inside the bank making a transaction when he heard the crash and ran out screaming. "Her legs were mangled," Ibia said.

Mitte said people scattered when the car hit the sign. The large sidewalk section in front of the bank "was packed. People were at the bus stop and at the lights," he said.

"It was incredible he never hit more people. People flew into the air" to get out of the way, he said. Mitte said when the girl was hit, "I thought she was jumping out of the way, but the car must have thrown her."

Mitte found her "with her head bent over and blood coming out of her mouth."

A witness from a building across the street said he saw smoke billowing 15 feet into the air.

The driver of the car was given oxygen at the scene and later taken to Kaiser Hospital.

Police blocked off several blocks of both Bishop and King streets and rerouted traffic while they examined evidence and interviewed witnesses.

Stensgaard said the incident is being classified as a motor vehicle accident.