KUNIA — Family members said Juanito Omnes Jr. was the youngest of nine children who rarely went out late at night and was among the least likely in the family to get into trouble.

The 14-year-old Wahiawa Middle School eighth-grader preferred to stay home, learn to play new songs on his 'ukulele and stay in touch with his friends through his MySpace account.

"He never did ask for much," said sister Miriam Omnes, 19, of the boy family and friends called "JR."

But after trick-or-treating around the small, tight-knit Kunia Plantation Camp on Halloween night in a Jason-style hockey mask, JR joined a group of other youths in his neighborhood for a jaunt to the Kunia Wal-Mart several miles away.

According to several interviews, JR was in the front passenger seat of a 1995 Honda Prelude that witnesses said crossed the center line, crashed and wedged itself between a fire hydrant and a utility pole. The vehicle was heading north on 'Anonui Street in Royal Kunia before the crash.

Three others, including the 22-year-old driver, were taken to the hospital with critical or serious injuries.

The driver and Omnes were wearing seat belts, police said. Neither of the other boys, in the backseat at the time of the accident, was wearing a seat belt. A 12-year-old passenger was thrown from the vehicle, officials said.

' 'ANONUI SPEEDWAY'

Family members said from what they heard, the vehicle got into a race with another car after leaving Wal-Mart.

Police and neighbors said 'Anonui, a four-lane street with long straightaways followed by wide, loopy curves is notorious for racing. One neighbor referred to the stretch as " 'Anonui Speedway."

Police are looking into whether speeding was a factor.

One witness on the scene said he saw unopened beer cans.

But Juanito Omnes Sr. said his youngest was not prone to partying. "He good boy, he not drinking, he not smoking," Omnes said.

"He was a mama's boy," his sister, Miriam Omnes, said. "If my parents said 'don't go,' he didn't go. All of us hard-headed, except for him."

When JR was not home by 11 p.m. or so, his father and siblings went around the plantation camp calling out for him. Around 1 or 2 a.m., his sisters said, neighbors whose children were in the car came by or phoned to say they had heard from the hospital where they were taken.

The Omnes family did not get a call. That's when Mamerta and Juanito Omnes Sr. knew their worst fears had been realized.

Peter Namahoe, 17, said he taught JR, his girlfriend Elyzabeth's brother, to be a hip-hop and rap deejay.

"He was always on the computer, playing with his uke, trying to learn new songs," Namahoe said.

Around friends, "he always joked around and stuff just to make people laugh," Namahoe said.

Namahoe was angry at the driver of the car.

"He (JR) never really lived his life," said Namahoe, a Leilehua High School senior.

He urged other youths not to speed or drive while drinking. "Keep it coolheaded and don't be a showoff and say, 'Look at me,' " he said.

Miriam Omnes identified the driver as Melandrew Taban, a longtime family friend whose mother is JR's godmother.

Fifteen people spanning three generations live in the Omnes' cramped, five-bedroom plantation house on Second Street. Juanito Omnes Sr., a Del Monte pineapple plantation truck driver, was among those who lost his job when the plant closed.

He and his wife now work at the airport for Worldwide Flight Services. The family arrived in Hawai'i from the Philippines in 1990.

His brothers and sisters kept reminding the steady stream of visitors that they welcomed into their home yesterday that JR was not only the baby of the family but the only one born in the United States.

SEEN IT BEFORE

In Royal Kunia, several miles down the road, residents were still shaken by the tragedy but noted that accidents are a common occurrence on 'Anonui.

Roman Cruz of 'Eleu Street said it was the fifth accident and third fatality he's seen in the past several years. Two people were killed in a motorcycle accident about five years ago. Cruz said they also were racing.

Cruz has a ladder leaning against his backyard fence onto 'Anonui Street so he can run out and help whenever there is an accident. He was watching TV Wednesday night and he was the first on the scene.

He said he climbed the fence onto 'Anonui in time to see another car that had stopped momentarily drive away.

Police said it's possible that the Prelude was racing a maroon Honda.

"One just couldn't make the turn and you could hear it skidding out and it just wrapped around the pole," Cruz said. "Because of the way the road turns, he kind of just jackknifed into the lamp ... he just overshot it."

Cruz said the road was slick from rain "and it sounded like the two cars touched."

Racing occurs on the stretch "every weekend and not every night, but almost every other night," he said. Police monitored closely for a while and the racing stopped, but when the police went away the racers returned, he said.

Leka Bode, who lives on nearby Halepuna Street, said she would like to see some type of speed enforcement measures installed along 'Anonui, as well as more police in the area.

"It's so wide and wide open, it's very tempting for the kids to test their capabilities," she said.

POLICE TRY THEIR BEST

Sgt. Lui Pestana of the Pearl City police substation said officers have tried to do what they can with the resources they have.

"We've had many speeding complaints in that area, and we've gone up there and issued lots of citations ... but we can't post someone there 24 hours a day," Pestana said.

Traffic enforcement officials could dispatch officers to monitor the area but that would mean pulling them from DUI checkpoints or other duties, he said.

Even then, Pestana said, he's not sure that will help.

"You can sit there all day and tag speeders but when you get racers, they're going to make a run first to make sure there are no cops and then they'll race."

Lance Widner, government affairs chairman for the Royal Kunia Community Association, said the group would like to meet with police officials to discuss the issue.

"We hear them every night. We call the police and say, 'Can you please get someone out here, it's another night out on 'Anonui Raceway,' " he said. "The problem is by the time we call the police, the speeders have obviously gone by long ago."

The traffic fatality marks the 53rd on O'ahu this year compared with 79 at the same time last year.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.