When city worker Andrew Kauanoe saw an oncoming car cross the center line and crash near Punalu'u on Jan. 23, he pulled over to help the stunned driver and passengers, pulled a baby out of the wreckage and performed CPR on the still child.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann honored Kauanoe yesterday at Honolulu Hale with a certificate of recognition because the veteran sewage worker could easily have assumed someone else would help. And because Kauanoe struggled to help even more after he realized that the Japanese visitors didn't speak enough English to tell him what was wrong.

Kauanoe said the young mother was crying and eventually he realized why — her baby was still trapped in the car.

"I couldn't understand Japanese. The baby was in the car seat ... in between the back seat and the front seat," Kauanoe said. "I took the baby out and gave it to the mother."

Despite the language barrier, he understood when she said the baby wasn't breathing. "So I performed CPR, I pinched the baby's nose, opened up the mouth and I blew a couple of times and the baby started crying," he said.

He then handed the baby back to the mother, made sure police and firefighters were on the way and the neighbors were directing traffic away from the accident. And he went back to work, hauling a tractor-trailer full of sewage sludge.

"He could have just kept going," Hannemann said. Instead, "he got out of that tanker rig and really went beyond the call."

Hannemann congratulated Kauanoe for "your humility in the wake of this deed and your aloha for those in need."

Kauanoe, who lives in Waimanalo, said he did what he could. He said he would have liked to stay until all the rescue crews arrived. "But there's no way you can park a 60-foot tanker off the road," he said.

City spokesman Ken Kawahara said the Japanese visitors were treated and released from Kahuku Hospital and have returned home.

Hannemann praised Kauanoe for his "selfless and courageous act." And he noticed that Kauanoe didn't make much of what happened but mentioned it in passing to a fellow worker.

"We had to drag him out here," Hannemann said yesterday.

Before reporters could ask Kauanoe more questions about the rescue, he had quietly returned to work. He told a co-worker he had to get back to pay the parking meter.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.