Investigation, power line repairs kept lanes closed after accident

Advertiser Staff

Honolulu police said a traffic investigation that clogged several lanes of Kamehameha Highway in Pearl City most of Saturday was due to downed power lines and traffic deaths.

Traffic Division Maj. Jeffrey Owens said a severed utility pole and two fatalities following a high-speed collision kept investigators at the scene for more than eight hours. Workers from Hawaiian Electric Company were at the site early into Sunday morning.

At about 1 a.m. Saturday, a sport utility vehicle was speeding through stoplights along a wet portion of Kamehameha Highway when it struck a Ford Mustang in the intersection of Kamehameha Highway and Acacia Road.

The SUV the driver, a 29-year-old man from Pearl City and his 33-year-old female passenger from 'Ewa Beach, were killed after the vehicle went airborne, severed a utility pole and damaged a building under construction in Pearl City.

The 32-year-old woman who was driving the Mustang was not injured.

Owens said the poles were hanging from wires, and police could not let Hawaiian Electric Company workers fix the pole or other damaged wires until their investigation of the two deaths was complete.

Police still do not know if drugs and alcohol were involved in the crash.