Police seek witnesses to strange traffic death

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Police are renewing their request for information related to a traffic incident in August in Hilo that left a 62-year-old Pahoa man dead.

Police responded at about 6:20 a.m on Aug. 24 to the Puainako Street extension near the 3-mile-marker on a report that a man had reportedly been struck by a vehicle.

Responding officers later determined that the victim, Allen Y.L. Kealoha, had stopped his commercial flatbed delivery truck on the side of the road just above the entrance to the Hilo Hillside subdivision.

It’s believed the vehicle may have experienced mechanical issues, and that the driver was securing his cargo.

Investigators believe the delivery driver was subsequently struck by his own vehicle.

Witnesses reported seeing another vehicle with two male occupants in the area around the same time.

An autopsy found the cause of death was blunt-force injuries to the torso, and the manner of death was accidental.

Police are asking for anyone with information about this incident, or who may have been in the area of the Puainako Street extension between approximately 6 a.m. and 6:20 a.m. that morning, to contact the police department’s nonemergency number at (808) 935-3311 or Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300.