NANAKULI, HI : A 26-year-old man was killed on May, Sunday 7th 2017

A 26-year-old man was killed late Sunday night after losing control of his vehicle and driving into a parked car in Nanakuli, according to the Honolulu Police Department.

The Honolulu Medical Examiner says Jeremy Alan Castro, a Waianae resident, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital following the crash.

"I just wish he was just joking. But it's not, it's really for real," said Kuulei Castro.

Kuulei said she and Jeremy have two kids together, their five-year-old daughter and one-year-old son.

"I had to tell my daughter this morning. A five-year-old girl, 'You don't have your dad anymore.' That's the hardest thing I ever had to do," Kuulei said.

Authorities say Castro was speeding in the southbound direction along Nanakuli Avenue around 10:15 p.m. when he somehow lost control of his vehicle and went off the road into a grassy shoulder area near Pililaau Avenue.

He then somehow made it back onto the roadway, police say, before slamming into an unoccupied vehicle. The impact caused the car Castro was driving to flip onto its side.

Paramedics transported Castro to a nearby hospital in critical condition, where he later died.

One eyewitness described the scene of the crash.

“You see that window on the top of that car? The boy was right underneath that window, the truck was on top of him," Debbie Smith said. "But us as a community – we must have had 50 of us here – held hands and said a prayer for the boy."

Smith and other residents say they want to see speed bumps installed along the road – or an increased police presence, in order to encourage drivers to slow down.

“Unbelievable how nothing is being fixed, because everything's still the same,” Smith said. "All the cars end up on my road, in my yard. Half of them no more insurance. I've got to fix it myself. I am angry because nothing is being done."

The owner of the parked vehicle that Castro crashed into said her family has been demanding speed calming measures, like speed bumps or signs, since the 1970s.

"Being someone from the community, born and raised, I've seen numbers of accidents, deadly accidents and I am very tired of it. Enough is enough. I want something done," said Nanakuli resident Mapuana Tector.

Tector says all their complaints have been falling on deaf ears.

"There's a dip, there's also a sharp turn, and a ditch and we've asked them to put some type of safety measures...speed bump, guard rails...there's no sign to say sharp turn, there's a dip. There's no safety signs whether it's from the state, city and county, even Hawaiian Homestead. I hope that they take this very serious," Tector said.

Community leaders have also been upset about the speeding.

"One option we've been pursuing is greater enforcement and greater police presence out here. Other things are traffic engineering that we have been in conversation with our government agencies about whether that means street narrowing, or signage, or other traffic calming measures," said Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board member Pono Higa.

Higa says part of the problem is jurisdiction. The state owns the streets in the area but they are maintained by the city.

"The city maintains these roads. However, they can't put in any grand engineering devices in the community. So the Department of Hawaiian Homelands have told us they studied the issues and they've done traffic counts. But now it's...when are we gonna put in those implements?" Higa said.

Source :
Authorities identify man killed in late-night Nanakuli crash