NANAKULI — A truck that collided with a passenger car Thursday night, killing the truck's driver and a toddler in the car, was seen speeding side-by-side with a third vehicle immediately before the crash, witnesses said yesterday.

Police have not said that another vehicle was involved, and the HPD vehicular homicide team that investigated the incident was not available for comment.

Shirlene Argayoso, who lives on the mountain side of the highway adjacent to the crash site on Farrington Highway, said she saw the third vehicle speed away after the collision.

"So it looks like somebody who was involved in this and was maybe responsible for it happening is going to get off scot-free," she said.

Three other witnesses, who said they watched the drama unfold from the ocean side of Farrington Highway, said they clearly saw the pickup and a small white townbound vehicle moving at a high rate of speed immediately before the crash. All three also said they saw the pickup clip the white car before the pickup lost control.

Rowena Cintron, who lives on the beach, said she was standing outside her tent when she spotted the pickup weaving in and out of traffic and moving fast. She said when the pickup was approximately in front of her tent, it hit the white car, which was also traveling at a high rate of speed.

"And then right over here — this part right here," she said pointing to the highway directly in front of her tent, "he (the pickup) wen' bang one white car. ... See, there were actually two white cars."

Two men, who identified themselves as Kimo and Steve but refused to give their last names because they said they did not want to be questioned by police, also said they saw two vehicles coming fast in their direction.

"We were standing right here and we saw the two cars coming and they were speeding," Kimo said. "They were both going pretty fast, like they were racing or something."

"I saw them flying down the highway," Steve added. "The white car was in front on the inside lane, and the pickup was, like, following."

Adding to the confusion of the night was that both the vehicle that was struck — a 2001 Volkswagen Jetta — and the car that witnesses said was speeding were white.

Argayoso said when she heard the collision she immediately looked out her bay window to see what had happened. Although the Jetta and the pickup had moved out of her field of vision, she distinctly remembers seeing a white, townbound car.

"When I looked down this way (toward the east), there was a white car speeding off," Argayoso said.

She said when she came outside moments later and saw the remains of the Jetta, at first she thought it was the white car she had watched driving away.

"I thought, how did the car get hit and turned that way when I saw it going straight down the road ... and it just kept right on going," she said.

Argayoso said when it dawned on her that the car leaving the scene in a hurry could not possibly have been the Jetta, she mentioned it to police investigators. She said they acted as though she must be mistaken.

Police have said that around 10:20 p.m. a black, town-bound, 2003 Chevrolet pickup traveling at a high rate of speed lost control, hit a guard rail on the right side of Farrington, spring-boarded across two town-bound lanes, and sheared off the driver's side of the west-bound Jetta.

The driver of the pickup, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle and suffered fatal head injuries, police said.

Authorities identified the driver as Sanford Valdez, 25, of Wai'anae.

After striking a tree and a hollow-tile wall, the pickup flipped and landed upside down on a car at 87-1468 Farrington, trapping a 28-year-old Waipahu passenger inside, they said. Firefighters freed the woman, who was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in good condition.

A 3-year-old boy was ejected from the Jetta and died after he landed in a nearby driveway, still strapped into his infant car seat, police said. The child's father and mother, along with a female passenger and a 1-year-old infant girl, were taken to Queen's in serious condition, police said.

Authorities identified the 3-year-old as Koa-Paka Miles of Wai'anae.

Visitors yesterday continued to stop by two memorial sites where Valdez died and the boy was found.

One visitor was Honey-Ke Kahalewai, 3, who came with her mother, Rose Stanley, and her grandmother, Carolyann Stanley, to carefully add a blue Care Bear, a stuffed goldfish and her own hand made candy lei on Koa-Paka's shrine.

Two nights before, Rose and Carolyann Stanley, who live in the neighborhood, had come to the scene to help survivors of the Jetta wreckage, particularly Koa-Paka's 1-year-old sister, Kaohulani, until police, firefighters and paramedics arrived.

Rose Stanley had made certain Honey-Ke remained at home.

"She didn't see anything," Rose Stanley said. "All the kids stayed inside. But she understands. I told her. And she was sad. We made the lei together. And she wanted to bring it here."