‘We looked and it was a bus running over people’ | Witnesses describe deadly shuttle bus crash

By Eric Naktin

Click here for updates on this story

    HONOLULU (KITV) — A peaceful morning turned into a life or death situation for vacationers at Honolulu Harbor’s Pier 2-B on Friday morning.

Lillian Le, a visitor from Denver told Island News, “We heard the tire of a vehicle screeching, we looked and it was a bus running over people and hit against a wall.”

Carnival Cruise Line said that nine Carnival Miracle guests were hit by a shuttle bus in the transportation area outside the Honolulu cruise terminal on Friday morning – one guest died from her injuries. She was traveling with her husband, who was also injured and is expected to recover.

Honolulu police say a 57-year-old shuttle bus driver had dropped off customers at Pier 2, and someone told him his vehicle was moving forward. Police say the driver then jumped back into the driver’s seat and tried to stop the vehicle but pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake.

The Hilo Hattie shuttle bus then collided with two concrete barriers and pedestrians.

Mark Elwell works within the same complex where the accident occurred.

“We saw the first responders coming, it was substantial, probably about 10 a.m., four or five ambulances, two fire trucks, ten cop cars, looked pretty bad – it’s really distressing, I’ve worked here 21 years, I’ve never seen anything to this magnitude, really sad to see, obviously people were hurt pretty bad to be taken away by ambulance,” Elwell said.

Police say that speed does not appear to be a factor in the crash and it’s unknown if alcohol or drugs were contributing factors.

Carnival has expressed it’s thoughts are with the guests affected and their loved ones.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.