A 25-year-old construction worker was hospitalized in serious condition Wednesday night after a driver struck him inside a coned-off work zone on the H-1 East Freeway near Pearl City and kept driving without stopping. The crash happened at approximately 8:15 p.m., leaving investigators searching for a driver who has not been identified.
The unidentified driver was traveling eastbound on the H-1 East Freeway when they struck the man as he worked within the coned construction area, according to KITV 4 Island News. Rather than stopping to help or provide information, the driver continued traveling on the freeway, leaving the injured man in the roadway. Honolulu Emergency Medical Services transported him to a nearby hospital, where he remains in serious condition.
What Police Know So Far
Police have said they do not yet know whether speed, drugs, or alcohol were contributing factors in the crash, and the investigation remains ongoing. The case falls to the Honolulu Police Department's Traffic Division, which handles detailed scene investigations whenever a crash involves death, serious bodily injury, or a probable felony traffic offense, per department collision investigation procedures. HPD's Traffic Division has asked that anyone with information about the incident call 808-723-3413.
Leaving the scene of a crash that causes serious bodily injury is a Class B felony under Hawaii law, carrying penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines as high as $25,000, according to a legal overview from Enjuris. That statute, Hawaii Revised Statutes § 291C-12, distinguishes ordinary bodily injury from serious bodily injury, with the more severe harm triggering the felony-level charge once a driver is identified and apprehended.
Move Over Law Covers Work Zones Like This One
Hawaii's Move Over Law already requires drivers approaching a stopped emergency or highway service vehicle with flashing lights to slow down and change lanes away from it when it's safe to do so, under HRS § 291C-27, as detailed by Honolulu Police Department guidance. The law traces back to 2012, after Honolulu Police Officers Garrett Davis and Eric Fontes were struck and killed in separate highway crashes while working roadside duty, deaths that spurred the original legislation. This year, state lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 2026, which would expand that statute to cover any stationary vehicle marked by hazard lights, flares, or traffic cones, not just official emergency vehicles, according to legislative text tracked by LegiScan.
Hawaii law already doubles fines for speeding and other moving violations committed inside active, coned-off highway construction zones statewide, a deterrent the Hawaii Department of Transportation has highlighted in past safety campaigns. HDOT has also noted that Hawaii recorded three work-zone-related traffic fatalities per year for three consecutive years leading up to 2018, underscoring the risks faced by road crews working alongside highway traffic.
A Broader Pattern on Oahu's Freeways
The Pearl City stretch of the H-1 East Freeway has been the site of ongoing multi-year highway work, including widening, resurfacing, and retaining wall construction that requires nighttime coned closures, according to a draft environmental assessment tied to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam infrastructure planning. That kind of nighttime work zone is exactly the setting in which Wednesday's crash unfolded.
Statewide data compiled for Hawaii's Triennial Highway Safety Plan found that 587 fatal traffic crashes occurred across the islands from 2017 through 2022, with speed, driver inattention, failure to yield, and hit-and-run behavior cited as primary contributing factors alongside substance impairment, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On Oahu specifically, HPD had recorded 16 to 17 traffic fatalities through late May of this year, a notable drop from the 31 traffic deaths logged over the same period in 2025, according to KHON2. Even with that improvement, Wednesday's hit-and-run is a reminder that roadside and work-zone crashes remain an unresolved hazard on the island's busiest freeway corridor.
