The mother of a 16-year-old girl killed Sunday night in a hit-and-run collision on Piilani Highway is appealing to the public to help find the driver.

Hannah Simmons was hit around 8:50 p.m., while crossing the highway on a marked crosswalk with a friend and her boyfriend at Uwapo Road, her mother said. The driver hit the girl after making a left turn from Kaiwahine Street onto the highway.

The driver fled the scene, and Hannah was rushed to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where she died. The Maui Police Department is actively investigating the case.

“It’s unbearable pain,” Satya Simmons said, crying during a phone interview. “It’s like someone ripped my heart out. For the first two and a half days, I was pretty much hysterical. Uncontrollable sobbing like you see in the movies or live newscasts. It’s unbearable.”

Preliminary investigation shows that the vehicle is possibly a blue Ford, Dodge or Chevy full-sized pickup truck with an after-market lift and tires, police said.

The driver appeared to be Caucasian, between 20 and 35 years old, with possibly sandy, blondish hair in a crew-cut style, Simmons said. A passenger in the truck appeared to be local.

“As a mother, you’d think I would want to kill him or run him over and want him dead, but I have so much compassion because I feel like he’s ruined his life in this bad choice,” Simmons said. “All I want from him is to hold me and feel the pain that he caused so that he truly understands how much this hurts and the hole in my heart.

“Then I can let it go and forgive him, but I know he’s not going to ever feel it because it’s not his baby.”

Originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, Simmons and her daughter moved to Kihei last winter. Hannah attended Kihei Charter School. She had recently received her general education development certificate and was known as a talented artist and actress.

“She was an amazing artist and really wanted to pursue art and helping people,” Simmons said.

Simmons said she and Hannah returned to Alaska briefly to plan a permanent move to Kauai with her fiance. She said she moved to Kauai about a month ago, but struggled to find a place for her daughter and boyfriend.

Simmons recalled one of their last “heart-to-heart” conversations three days before she and her daughter moved back to Hawaii.

“I’m so happy with life,” she recalled Hannah saying. “We’re going back to the islands and for the first time, I’m really happy.”

Hannah moved in with her boyfriend’s family on Maui temporarily, and was planning to join her mother in a few weeks, Simmons said. The mother was on Kauai when her daughter was struck, and friends called her, telling her that Hannah was being rushed to the hospital and that she needed to get on an airplane as soon as possible.

“They (medics) told the boys that she was going to be OK, but they knew it was bad,” she said.

Simmons called the Maui Memorial emergency room, hoping Hannah may have suffered broken bones or other nonfatal injuries. A doctor answered, telling her to hang on and not to go anywhere four or five times, but she later could hear the boyfriend identify the body.

“She was my only baby,” she said.

The three friends crossed the highway after pressing the button for the traffic light and receiving the signal to cross, Simmons said. She said they walked in a row led by their friend, followed by the boyfriend and Hannah.

As they crossed the highway, they saw the driver speed onto the road and yell out the window, Simmons said. He appeared to be having road rage.

Hannah, who was holding her boyfriend’s hand, was knocked apart from the group and lay face down in the pavement.

“He lifted her head up in his arms, and she was spitting up blood,” Simmons said.

After the collision, the friend locked eyes with the driver and is sure he would be able to identify him if he saw him again, Simmons said.

Simmons said she hugged and cried with both boys when she arrived on Maui earlier this week. Both are having flashbacks of the incident and may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.

Hannah’s boyfriend, who she called her son, appeared to be missing “part of his soul,” she said.

“He’s having an extremely hard time being on Maui because everything reminds him of Hannah,” she said.

Family and friends from Alaska have flown to Maui to support Simmons. Fundraisers and an online account have been set up to assist with funeral arrangements and other costs.

The mother also has received support from people on Maui — a place they have been visiting as often as they could afford since 1999, she said. She said her daughter was “so full of light,” and people were “drawn to her” even as a baby.

“Maui was her island and has always been her favorite,” she said. “I’m just so thankful that she touched so many hearts while she was here and not just mine.”

The family plans to spread Hannah’s ashes on her birthday March 8 during a ceremony on a Maui beach.

Simmons pleaded with the public and local businesses to review security footage of parking lots and other areas the driver could have been.

“Accidents happen, you know? I don’t think he hit her because he wanted to kill someone, but justice needs to be served,” she said. “I don’t know what to say to the passenger other than I know this must be horrifying, but if he could come out and help us, it would be the right thing to do.”

The incident marks Maui County’s 23rd traffic fatality this year, compared with 21 at the same time last year. Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to call police at 244-6400.

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.