One person dead, 11 injured in shuttle bus crash in Hawaii
HONOLULU (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - One person is dead and 11 others were injured on Friday after a shuttle bus ran into a group near Honolulu Cruise Port.
"I seen the whole thing. Somebody screamed, and then I looked over and the bus hit into the crowd, and it just kept going until I hit the wall there. It knocked over the cement. Big cement block was pushed out and the bus hit into the wall."
Janet Lightfoot, an ER doctor from Florida visiting Hawaii
Lightfoot is on a cruise with her mom. They were at Pier 2 at Honolulu Harbor, waiting for the shuttle to go shopping, when Lightfoot saw this bus with a Hilo Hatties logo heading toward a crowd of people.
"My instincts are to go help. So, I ran over and kind of started triaging people and trying to help," Lightfoot explained.
"It just kept going and my daughter yells out, 'There's nobody right driving the bus,' and then poof, it hits the wall," said Linda Peck, visiting from Florida.
Honolulu police say at around 10:24am, a 57-year-old man dropped off customers at Pier 2 and was notified by a bystander that his vehicle was moving forward.
The driver ran back in the bus to try to stop it, but he pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes and crashed into two concrete barriers and five pedestrians.
Several EMS units responded to the scene. Six people were taken to the hospital, including a 68-year-old woman who died of her injuries.
"I'm a little shook up. Because, you know, just watching it was pretty shaken," Peck expressed.
"It definitely puts a damper on my vacation. I deal with this every day. And I work in the emergency room. But this is just different. We're on vacation. I seen the incident happen. You know, the husband of one of the family members was there and just sad. Very sad that this happened."
Janet Lightfoot, an ER doctor from Florida visiting Hawaii
The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii says all five victims were visiting from Illinois.
Police say it is unknown if drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.
