An Orchidland woman is recovering — and seeking answers — after a hit-and-run incident involving her and her 4-year-old daughter earlier this month.
On the evening of Jan. 15, Tisiphonie Williams was walking on 40th Avenue in Orchidland with her daughter in a stroller and her dog on a leash, when she heard a vehicle coming up behind her.
“I’ve been cautious on that road,” Williams said, noting that traffic on 40th Avenue has significantly picked up in recent years, with many drivers not obeying the 25 mph speed limit. “When I heard the car, I made sure I was over on the side of the road, and I looked behind me to check the distance between us.
“And I saw this big truck, and it looked like it was going diagonally, straight for me,” Williams went on.
Williams said the vehicle was certainly going over the speed limit, and that she had barely enough time to react before it was upon her. She was able to push the stroller away before she was hit by the truck and being briefly knocked unconscious.
Upon awakening, the concussed Williams saw the driver of the vehicle, who she described as a local man “who didn’t seem alarmed that he just hit someone or apologetic.” She said the man told her he had been on his phone while driving and told her to get into the truck so he could take her to the hospital.
Williams said that she also saw that the driver, whom she had never seen before or since, had her daughter in his truck as well.
“Alarm bells were going off,” Williams said. “I just started yelling at him.”
Eventually, neighbors driving by saw the situation and stopped to help.
Jaize Richardson, a friend of Williams, said she recognized her friend’s stroller crumpled next to a stopped vehicle and realized something was wrong.
Richardson said she and her husband retrieved Williams and her daughter from the vehicle and called 911. While the driver initially was cooperative, not objecting to Richardson taking pictures of his license plate, he eventually left when more neighbors came to check on the commotion.
“He seemed in shock, like I think he really did just want to take them to the hospital,” Richardson said.
Ultimately, Williams said she sustained fractures to her pelvis and back, bruised ribs and the concussion, on top of general bruising and road rash. She said doctors told her that her injuries could have been far worse but for her level of fitness.
Her daughter, she said, was “amazingly” unhurt, and her dog only sustained a minor injury to the leg.
Williams said the incident highlights, if nothing else, the need for better traffic control measures on certain subdivision roads. While 40th Avenue is a private road, it is part of a Hele-On bus route and sees heavy traffic and frequent pedestrian use daily.
Meanwhile, Hawaii Police Department spokeswoman Denise Laitinen said the case is under investigation.
The vehicle was a dark-colored Toyota truck of an unknown model — Williams said it “felt large” — with the license plate number ZBD 376. The Toyota emblem on the front of the car fell off during the collision.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
