Police identify Keaau man killed in Highway 130 hit-and-run

Highway 130 near Orchidland Drive has again become a place where Keaau drivers and pedestrians are being forced to reckon with deadly risk, after Hawaii Island police identified 66-year-old Daniel Marcos of Keaau as the man killed in a hit-and-run.

Police said the crash happened late Friday night, May 15, 2026, after officers were sent at 10:50 p.m. to a report of a person lying in the roadway. When they arrived, they found Marcos unresponsive. Investigators said he had been struck multiple times by unknown vehicles that fled in an unknown direction.

Detectives said Marcos may have been trying to cross Highway 130 and was not in a marked crosswalk when he was hit. Police have not identified the driver or drivers involved, and the investigation remained open as they continued to seek leads from anyone who saw the crash, saw a damaged vehicle, or knows who was on that stretch of road that night. Hawaii Police Department’s Unsolved Homicides Division is taking information at (808) 961-2380, and Crime Stoppers is accepting tips at (808) 961-8300.

The death carried added weight on an already grim day on Hawaii Island roads. Police and local traffic reporting said Marcos’ death was the third traffic fatality within a 12-hour period on Friday, and at the time the case was updated it was the 12th traffic fatality on Hawaii Island in 2026, matching the island’s total at the same point in 2025. By Tuesday, May 20, Mayor Kimo Alameda said the island had recorded 13 traffic fatalities in 2026, including eight in the previous two weeks.

For East Hawaii residents, the location was especially troubling. Highway 130 near Orchidland Drive has seen serious pedestrian crashes before, including the 2025 death of 21-year-old Maxwell Robertson Sherwood of Keaau near Orchidland Drive and 36th Avenue, and another pedestrian fatality near Orchidland Drive in 2024. Those crashes have made the corridor a repeated source of concern in the Puna District, where long roadway stretches, darkness and speeding traffic can turn a brief crossing into a fatal encounter.

The broader pattern has sharpened the urgency around enforcement and safety. While a March 2026 update said statewide traffic fatalities were down sharply from the same period in 2025, Hawaii Island’s recent run of deaths stood out. Alameda has called for stronger messaging, enforcement, engineering and education responses, especially on major highways such as Saddle Road. On Highway 130, police still need the public’s help to identify the vehicle or vehicles that left Marcos in the roadway and never stopped.