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The driver of the trolley that struck and killed an elderly pedestrian in Kakaako on Thursday had a blood alcohol concentration of more than twice the legal threshold for drunken driving, according to Honolulu police reports. Read more

The driver of the trolley that struck and killed an elderly pedestrian in Kakaako on Thursday had a blood alcohol concentration of more than twice the legal threshold for drunken driving, according to Honolulu police reports.

Police arrested the driver, David A. Kmetz, 52, near the scene of the collision on suspicion of first-degree negligent homicide and drunken driving, then released him two days later pending investigation.

Ernest Urata, who lived on South Street, was pronounced dead at the scene. The Honolulu Medical Examiner says Urata died from multiple blunt force injuries.

Police said the Oli Oli Trolley, with eight Japanese tourists aboard, was traveling east on Auahi Street when it struck Urata, who was in a marked crosswalk at the Cooke Street intersection. They say Urata was crossing Auahi in the mauka direction when the trolley struck him before turning left onto Cooke.

A witness told police that when he got to the scene, Kmetz was standing next to Urata’s body. The witness said Kmetz told him he was the one who hit Urata.

Kmetz works for Travel Plaza Transportation, a subsidiary of JTB Hawaii. The company says it has launched an investigation into the crash.

According to written police reports, officers at the scene said Kmetz was uncooperative and had slurred speech and a strong odor of alcohol. The officers said Kmetz kept covering his mouth with his hands, failed a field sobriety test and said, “I had a shot of vodka 15 minutes ago because I knew I was gonna finish work.” They said Kmetz had a half-full bottle labeled “Smirnoff” in his front pants pocket.

Kmetz, however, refused multiple times to submit to breath, blood or urine tests, police said.

State law allows police to obtain, even by force, a sample of breath, blood or urine from the operator of any vehicle involved in a collision resulting in death or injury.

Police said Kmetz eventually agreed to submit to a breath test, which measured his alcohol concentration at 0.182 grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath. The legal threshold for drunken driving is 0.08 BAC.

Urata was the 27th pedestrian to die in a traffic-related incident on Oahu this year. Thirteen pedestrians died in traffic-related incidents on the island in all of 2017.