Posted at 10:33 a.m., Monday, November 19, 2001

Three die in two Maui traffic accidents

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

Three people died yesterday in two separate traffic accidents on Maui, including one in which a car plunged over a cliff and fell hundreds of feet into a gulch.

In this accident, a car ran off the precipice at Makamaka'ole, near Ka'anapali, at 4:52 p.m. Two passengers, a man and a 2-year-old child, were killed. The driver, a 28-year-old woman, was in critical condition yesterday at Maui Memorial Medical Center. A Maui Memorial nursing supervisor said she was transferred to Queen's Medical Center last night. An update on her condition was not available this morning.

Fire rescue squads were on the scene until nightfall yesterday and this morning recovered the two bodies, a spokesman said.

In the second accident, at 8:46 p.m.,Edward Anthony of Wailea was killed when the gray Lexus he was driving struck the side of a cane haul truck on Haleakala Highway at Keahua Junction.

Anthony, 77, had failed to stop for a flagman and flashing lights posted to stop vehicles on the highway, according to police.

Anthony's passenger, an 82-year-old woman, also from Wailea, was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where this morning she remained in stable condition.

The operator of the cane hauler, a man from Kahului, did not report any injuries from the accident.