Accidents kill two on O'ahu, three on Big Island
By Walter Wright and Hugh Clark
Advertiser Staff Writers
A baby thrown from its family's van by the force of a crash in La'ie was killed while five other family members from the van were hospitalized in the midst of one of the deadliest weekends on Hawai'i highways this year.
Scott Nishi • Special to The Advertiser
Three persons were killed in traffic collisions on the Big Island yesterday, one man died in a single-car crash on O'ahu early today, and another O'ahu man received critical injuries in another early morning crash in which two of three wrecked cars burst into flames.
Police respond to an accident early this morning near the Kaonohi Street overpass by the H-1 Freeway. Two cars were on fire.
Police yesterday were still investigating why a Mazda MVP van carrying a couple and their four children went out of control just before noon on Kamehameha Highway in La'ie, near Lanihuli Place.
HFD spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada said the van was townbound when it went out of control and landed on its side, hurling a 2-month-old infant out of the vehicle.
The baby boy, a 1-year-old girl, and the parents, in their 30s, were evacuated to The Queen's Medical Center by military helicopter, while another girl, 5, and a boy, 6, were taken to Kahuku Hospital by ambulance, Tejada said.
Police said last night the 2-month old boy was dead on arrival at the hospital; a Queens spokeswoman would not comment on the condition of the little girl, but said the parents in the La'ie crash remained in guarded condition tonight,
Emergency Medical Services supervisor Les Kurano said that when the children were taken from the scene of the accident, the baby boy was in "very, very critical condition," while the 1-year-girl was in serious condition.
It was, Kurano said, the latest in a wave of deadly traffic collisions normally not expected to begin until weather and holidays after Thanksgiving combine to make roads more hazardous.
Scott Nishi • Special to The Advertiser
The crashes on O'ahu today began at 1:30 a.m., when a Kalihi man was killed in a one-car accident near the H-1 Freeway.
A Dodge Neon is on fire after a fatal accident early this morning near the H-1 Freeway.
Three hours later, another man was critically injured in a fiery three-car crash on the freeway, where passersby pulled victims from three cars, two of them ablaze, after a chain reaction pair of collisions that closed all freeway lanes at 4:15 a.m.
In the first crash, a 23-year-old man from the Kalihi area was fatally injured when he lost control of a 2002 silver Acura RSX two-door sedan travelling east on Nimitz Highway one-tenth of a mile west of the H-1 on-ramp.
The Acura hit with a guard rail on the north side of the roadway and then spun across and crashed into a concrete barrier at the south side. Police said speed was a factor. The driver was taken to the Queen's Medical Center in critical condition, and died from his injuries, police said.
Three hours later, a speeding Dodge Neon burst into flames when it hit a Dodge Charger that was stopped on the H-1 Freeway after a collision with a Chevrolet Camaro moments earlier.
Both Dodge vehicles were on fire when passersby pulled the drivers and passengers from the three vehicles.
The driver of the Neon, identified only as a 20-year-old man from the Schofield Barracks area, was taken to The Queen's Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition last night. His two passengers, age and gender not reported, were transferred to Pali Momi Hospital.
Police said the black Camaro, speeding westbound on the freeway, collided with the older model Charger at a point one-tenth of a mile east of the Kaonohi Street overpass.
The driver of the four-door red Neon apparently did not see the crash ahead of him in time, hit the brakes and went into a skid into the Dodge Charger, setting both the Neon and the Charger aflame, Police Sgt. John Agno said.
All lanes of the freeway were closed and traffic from Moanalua Freeway was diverted to Kamehameha Highway, while westbound H-1 traffic was diverted to the Stadium off-ramp.
The roadway was re-opened at 7:57 a.m.
Meanwhile, Big Island police today still had not released the names of three people killed in two separate highway crashes yesterday.
A Mainland couple died when their jeep was hit by a driver who police said had been drinking and plunged 200 feet off a bridge into a gulch.
Police investigators said they had opened a double negligent homicide investigation into the deaths of the visitors.
The accident caused a three-hour traffic snarl on the Hawai'i Belt Road traffic near O'okala at the Hamakua-North Hilo boundary.
The 41-year-old man who was killed was a passenger and the woman with him was driving the rented vehicle. Their names and hometowns were not released.
A 32-year-old North Hilo woman was driving the pickup truck that hit the couple's jeep, police said. She was injured, treated at North Hawai'i's Community Hospital and released pending investigation.
In the other Big Island accident yesterday, a 19-year-old Kona man was killed shortly after midnight when the car he was a passenger in crashed near the 89-mile marker on the Queen Ka'ahumanu State Highway north of Kailua.
The 2003 Honda involved in the crash was attempting to overtake another car when the driver lost control.
Police said the driver and another passenger left the scene before police arrived. They were later found and treated for injuries, but were not identified.
The teenage passenger died at 4:45 a.m. yesterday at Kona Community Hospital.
Investigators said he was thrown from the car and pinned underneath it. He was not wearing seatbelt.
Police have asked witnesses to the crash to contact policeman Bradley Freitas at (808) 326-4277.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
