WAILUKU, Maui — A Maui tour van driver who rescued a boy from fast-moving storm runoff near Peahi on Thursday received a thank-you yesterday from the child's mother.

Lynn Hue, a nine-year driver with Ekahi Tours, said the mother called and told her that the boy, who is about 10 to 12, is mentally disabled. Hue said the woman was very emotional about the event and did not want her identity revealed to protect the family's privacy. The mother told Hue the family lives near where the rescue occurred, and that her son had gone outside the house with her other children to empty the garbage. When the children went back indoors, they didn't realize the boy was still outside.

The mother said her son was playing in rain, lost a slipper in the runoff and chased after it, getting caught up in an overpowering flow that carried him down onto Hana Highway, where he was spotted by Hue and her 10 passengers, who were returning from a Hana tour. The driver stopped the van and ran across the road to grab the boy but got pushed down into the water. Hue clung to a guardrail while holding the boy, preventing them both from being swept into a gulch that empties into Halehaku Bay.

Several passengers formed a human chain to pull the two to safety. The boy was taken home by a relative.

Hue, a 55-year-old mother of four, initially said they were about 50 to 75 feet from the drop-off, but after revisiting the site yesterday, she said it was much closer than she realized.

"I keep going over it in my mind. I'm just glad we were there," Hue said.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.