Posted on: Thursday, August 16, 2001

Driver's estate sued for damages in fatal Pearl City crash

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

The family of an 'Ewa Beach woman killed in a Pearl City traffic accident Aug. 4 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the estate of the driver of the car in which she was riding.

Merliza Vitolo, 33, was a passenger in a sport utility vehicle driven by Al Jimmy Mehau Bray, 29, of Pearl City. Bray's vehicle was speeding through stoplights on Kamehameha Highway when it struck a car in the intersection of Kamehameha Highway and Acacia Road, police said.

The SUV went airborne, severed a utility pole and slammed into an office at the Pearl Highlands Center. Vitolo was thrown from the vehicle and Bray was pinned inside. Both died at the scene.

In the Circuit Court lawsuit filed yesterday, Vitolo's family accused Bray of negligent, reckless and malicious conduct that led to her death.

The lawsuit also listed as yet unnamed defendants who may have served alcoholic beverages to Bray that left him in an impaired condition when he drove his vehicle.

Attorney Guillermo Canlas filed the lawsuit on behalf of Vitolo's children, Johnny and Marissa Perez Turla; Vitolo's mother, Josephine Orpilla; the children's paternal grandmother, Beatrice Grilho; and their father, John Perez.

The lawsuit seeks an undetermined amount in damages.