Add a name, subtract another from traffic fatality list

HILO — Police said Tuesday a man who died after being struck Friday by a pickup truck will be added to the year’s traffic fatality totals, but another who died in May of a heart attack that resulted in a single-vehicle crash will be subtracted.

According to police, 53-year-old Clinton Leimamo Pawai of Waimea will be added to the official traffic fatality count.

Pawai died early Saturday morning at North Hawaii Community Hospital after he was hit by a 2007 Toyota Tacoma in the parking lot of Parker Ranch Shopping Center hours earlier.

In its initial statement, police said Pawai’s death wouldn’t count toward the official yearly roadway death toll. In a Tuesday statement, police said Pawai was in what is considered a “traffic way” in the parking lot when the fatal crash occurred.

Police suspect the driver of the truck, 34-year-old Cody Malua Mahuna, had been drinking. He was arrested on suspicion of DUI, but later released without being charged pending further investigation.

Mahuna wasn’t injured.

Also on Tuesday, police said an autopsy found that a 70-year-old Ocean View man who died May 5 in Kailua-Kona when his 2010 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck ran off the Queen Kaahumanu Highway onto an embankment before coming to a stop in a northbound lane suffered cardiac arrest. The incident occurred about one-tenth of a mile south of Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole.

Michael A. McCormick’s name was stricken from the official fatality list since the cause of death was a medical condition, police said.

The Big Island’s official traffic fatality count for 2019 remains at 14, one fewer than at this time last year.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.