Blowhole victim drowned, autopsy shows
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Daniel Dick died of asphyxia by drowning after he fell into the Halona Blowhole near Sandy Beach on Sunday, the Medical Examiner's Office said yesterday.
The cause of death was released as an eyewitness to the accident came forward to describe how she saw the 18-year-old visitor from Sylmar, Calif., sucked into the spout just a few feet from where she stood.
Daniel Dick of Sylmar, Calif., died Sunday when he fell into Halona Blowhole. Dick was visiting Hawai'i with his mother and two brothers, who are expected to return to California tomorrow.
Cindy Smith, 45, of Hawai'i Kai, said Dick and a young woman walked past her and a friend, moved straight up to the hole in the rocks and leaned over it until his body formed a bridge over the opening.
They had just exchanged greetings.
"He said, 'Hey, how you doing, how's it going,' " Smith recalled, "and then he walked right on by and went up closer to the hole. He just walked up very calm."
Almost instantly, she said, Dick leaned over the hole and placed his hands on the opposite side.
Smith's friend, Richard del Gadillo of San Diego, cried out, "Don't do that!"
Smith said she saw no reaction, but that del Gadillo was watching Dick when the first burst of air rushing out of the hole hit his body.
"Within the next second the wind came up (out of the hole) and you could see his shorts flying around him," she said. "Richard said the boy looked like it was kind of neat.
"I was in shock: What is he doing? And about the time Richard yelled, the water came up in the next instant.
"The water gushed out and it took him 8 to 12 feet into the air, way over my head, and he did like kind of a somersault, tossed in the air and went upside down.
"He came straight down, like a perfect dive, an Olympic dive, and never hit the sides" of the hole, she said.
The young man never cried out, she said. "I think he was breathless; I think it took his breath away." Smith said she asked the girl who had come with Dick "was he on drugs, did he take something?"
The girl said no, "he's just crazy," and ran to the edge of the cliffs looking in the water below, screaming, "Where is he, where is he?" Smith recalled.
She said del Gadillo kept calling down the hole, yelling, "Hello, are you in there?"
"We got no response whatsoever, and Richard yelled to some people up by the road to call 911."
Smith said Dick was at the hole for no more than 30 seconds or so before the water hit him. She said he had approached from the direction of Sandy Beach and may have seen the spout only briefly and thought it was all water vapor.
Smith, a loan officer, said she wanted to talk to the victim's family so they would know as much as could be known about the circumstances.
Dick's mother and two brothers are expected to return to California tomorrow. Arrangements have been made for a cremation, and services are planned in California.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
