honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, May 3, 2010

Car hits home like a 'mini earthquake'


by Suzanne Roig
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Mark Kinimaka, 47, sits next to a beam damaged when a car ran into the corner of his Papakōlea home.

KENT NISHIMURA | The Honolulu Advertiser

spacer spacer

A woman dropping off a friend's daughter at a home in Papakōlea last night crashed into the corner of another house.

The white Honda did not receive much damage but the corner of the house was caved in, bending a beam.

The driver was taken away by ambulance, complaining of pains in her chest and stomach, witnesses said.

The woman's name was not released and her condition was unknown.

"I heard it and then I felt it," said Mark Kinimaka, who was in the second floor of the three-story home. "It was like a mini earthquake shook the house."

Sandra Alapa, the mother of the girl being dropped off, said the car must have lurched as the driver tried to turn around in Kinimaka's driveway. "We didn't see anything, just heard a loud bang," Alapa said. "The driver tried to reverse, but went forward instead."

Kinimaka said firefighters recommended he contact a structural engineer in the morning.

He and his mother planned to spend the night in the house.

"Next time," Kyla Alapa told her mother, "you're driving me home."