Hit-and-run kills man in Puna, police seek drivers involved

A late-night hit-and-run near Highway 130 and Orchidland Drive has become a negligent homicide investigation after Hawaii Island police said a man was struck multiple times by several vehicles that fled in different directions.

Officers were dispatched just before 11 p.m. Friday, May 15, to the Keaau intersection after a report of a person lying in the roadway. The man was found unresponsive and was pronounced dead shortly afterward. Police said his identity is being withheld until positive identification is made and next of kin are notified.

Investigators believe the man may have been crossing Highway 130 at a spot without a marked crosswalk when he was hit. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death, and the Area I Traffic Enforcement Unit is now trying to reconstruct how the collision unfolded and which drivers may have been involved.

The search is urgent because hit-and-run cases often turn on witness accounts, vehicle damage reports and nearby camera footage. Hawaii Police Department is asking anyone who saw the collision or the vehicles involved to contact Officer Johnathan Rapoza or Crime Stoppers.

The crash also adds to a grim stretch on Hawaii Island roads. Police said it was the third fatal crash within 12 hours and the 12th traffic fatality of 2026 on the island. In a corridor already known to East Hawaii drivers, the numbers reinforce concerns about nighttime visibility, speed and pedestrian safety along Highway 130.

The Orchidland Drive area has already been tied to deadly pedestrian cases. In May 2025, police investigated a fatal pedestrian crash near Orchidland Drive and 36th Avenue and later reclassified it as a negligent homicide investigation. In that case, a witness reported vehicles swerving to avoid the pedestrian before impact.

HPD has also investigated a February 2025 fatal motorcycle crash on Keaau-Pāhoa Road, which is Highway 130, and an August 2024 Puna pedestrian collision near Orchidland Drive in which police said the pedestrian was not in a marked crosswalk. Taken together, the cases show a corridor where darkness, traffic speed and vulnerable road users continue to collide with deadly results.