Media Release (update)

Big Island police are looking for a motorist who may have witnessed a vehicle-pedestrian accident Sunday that took the life of a 97-year-old Pepeekeo man.

Responding to a 2:09 p.m. call, South Hilo patrol and Traffic Enforcement Unit officers determined that Tadashi Yamashita of Pepeekeo was crossing Hawaii Belt Road in a makai-to-mauka direction at the intersection of Kaulaimano Road when he was struck by a 2002 Mazda MPV van being operated by a 23-year-old Hilo woman.

The possible witness was a Caucasian man who was driving a black Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in the Hilo direction at that intersection.

Police ask that the driver of the pickup truck call Officer Wendall Carter at 961-2293.