MOLOKAI (KHON2) — Molokai police are investigating a pedestrian accident. Three pedestrians, two of them children, were injured and a dog killed after a car plowed into them in Maunaloa just after 6 p.m..
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Melissa Ocampo, one of the victims in the crash, said she wants all driver to remember to slow down and pay attention.
It’s been almost a week since Ocampo, her 9-year-old daughter Ashlee and her 11-year-old friend were hit by a car.
Ocampo still has a difficult time standing and getting around
“(The pain) goes all the way up to my whole private area, all the way to my stomach,” Ocampo explained pulling up her dress to show her thighs blotchy and purple. “The entire thing is all bruised like horrible pain.”
Ashlee has a concussion and her friend is finally back on Molokai after spending several days in the hospital on Oahu.
They are slowly healing, but the incident still haunts them.
“It was the most scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Ocampo said. “It is still gives me nightmares. Just trying to figure it out, thinking about it, seeing it, picturing them under the tires.”
It happened Tuesday, Oct. 10, Ocampo and her girls were house sitting and caring for a neighbor’s three dogs.
“So every night at six o’clock, we would walk the dogs and we take the same route every day,” she said.
According to Ocampo, they were walking on the sidewalk, the girls were further in on the grass. All of a sudden a car came straight at her–jumping the curb. She said it hit her in her stomach and ran over her, then turned slightly hitting both girls and one of the dogs, dragging them 20 feet.
Ocampo’s 11 year old daughter Faithlynn was with them. She wasn’t hurt, but she saw it all happen.
“Her screams of terror really, like it gave me the strength to get back up,” Ocampo said choking back tears. “If it wasn’t for her, it wouldn’t have brought attention to anybody. Nobody would have known. I wouldn’t have gotten up. And I don’t know what would have happened. So I’m so grateful for her.”
When Ocampo finally got to her feet, she saw 9-year-old Ashlee and her friend under the car tires.
“I thought they were dead. They were not (moving). They were unconscious,” she said with tears in her eyes. “And then all of a sudden, the girls started making noise, one-by-one. And then one of the girls were screaming in agony.”
Two of the dogs ran off, but one, Vaxi Girl was killed.
Ocampo knows she and the girls are lucky to be alive. She has this message for drivers.
“People drive so fast on these roads, small roads, as if they’re going somewhere so important, and they’re going nowhere!” she said with frustration in her voice and tears running down her face. “But they’re taking people’s lives–they’re possibly taking people’s lives and ruining their lives while they’re at it, and it’s so dangerous. So I just hope that after this that they, you know, people realize, you gotta go slow. You can’t drive reckless. You can’t do this anymore. You got to be careful.”
Ocampo hasn’t been able to work since the accident and will need to do a lot of physical therapy. She said the driver didn’t have insurance.
If you’d like to assist the Ocampo ohana with medical expenses, click here.
