An 11-year-old boy was seriously injured near Volcano on Hawaiʻi Island Tuesday evening after falling from the bed of a moving pickup truck and being run over by a food wagon the truck was towing. He was first taken to a hospital in Hilo before being flown to Oʻahu for specialized pediatric care.
According to Maui Now, the incident was reported around 7:24 p.m. Tuesday near Maile Way and Alanui ʻIʻiwi Road in Volcano. Police say the boy was riding in the bed of the pickup truck when he lost his balance and fell, and was then struck by the food wagon being towed behind the vehicle.
The boy was first transported to Hilo Benioff Medical Center, the primary acute care hospital for East Hawaiʻi, before being sent to Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu for further treatment. Kapiʻolani is Hawaiʻi’s only dedicated full-service children’s hospital and operates the state’s sole Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, which serves patients from all islands, according to Hawaiʻi Pacific Health. Hilo Benioff was renamed in March 2024 following a $50 million donation from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne that matched $50 million in state funding for an $80 million expansion of the facility, per Big Island Video News.
What Police Are Investigating
Hawaiʻi Island police have classified the case as a negligent injury investigation and recovered both the pickup truck and the food wagon as evidence, per the Maui Now report. No arrests have been made at this time. Police said speed and impairment are not believed to be factors in the crash.
The case touches on Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 291-14, which restricts carrying passengers age 16 or younger in an open pickup truck bed, according to the same account. Under HRS §§ 707-705 and 707-706, operating a vehicle in a negligent manner that causes serious bodily injury can rise to Negligent Injury in the First Degree, a Class C felony, while causing substantial bodily injury is a misdemeanor-level Negligent Injury in the Second Degree, according to Justia Law. It remains unresolved whether any charges will be filed once the investigation concludes.
Standard procedure in serious-injury crashes under Hawaiʻi law calls for toxicological testing of vehicle operators when officers are investigating potential offenses under HRS Chapter 707, per the Honolulu Police Department. Police are asking anyone with information to contact Sergeant Keith Nacis at 808-935-3311 or by email at [email protected].
A Deadlier Year on Big Island Roads
The crash adds to a grim trend on Hawaiʻi Island this year. Traffic fatalities have surged by nearly 47 percent in 2026, with the Hawaiʻi Police Department reporting 22 deaths across 20 fatal crashes as of August 23, compared to 15 fatalities over the same period in 2025. That rise came even as overall major crashes fell 5.6 percent, to 637 from 675, and DUI arrests dropped 13.7 percent, to 504 from 584, over the same stretch, according to the Hawaiʻi Police Department’s data.
Highway 11, the Hawaiʻi Belt Road that serves the Volcano community and links the Puna District to Hilo, has long been documented as the island’s deadliest roadway corridor, averaging roughly seven traffic deaths a year, per KHON2. The Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation launched the Hawaiʻi Safe Roads Challenge in January 2026 to encourage safer driving statewide amid the elevated casualty numbers.
In the wake of the Volcano crash, police are urging motorists to make sure passengers wear seat belts whenever a vehicle is in operation and ride only in designated seating positions, not in open truck beds. The boy’s current medical condition has not been publicly updated.
