Posted on: Monday, November 18, 2002

Single-car accident snarls Ka'a'awa traffic

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Traffic was blocked for several hours in both directions on Kamehameha Highway near Crouching Lion Inn yesterday after a woman swerved her truck to avoid a dog and hit a utility pole.

The pole snapped at the base and the woman's black Mazda truck then veered into the ocean, police said.

The woman had been driving north on Kamehameha Highway when she saw a big, black dog in front of the Crouching Lion shortly before 11 a.m., police said.

The woman, in her mid- 40s, had bruises and swelling to her lower legs but appeared otherwise uninjured, Emergency Medical Services district chief Robert Pedro said. She was taken to Kahuku Hospital, where she was treated and released.

The pole was a not a main utility pole, but a smaller, support pole the utility company calls a "stub pole," said electric company spokeswoman Lynne Unemori. Guy wires from the pole were draped across the road, but the main pole was not affected and power to the area was not cut off, she said.

The road was closed for four hours while authorities cleared the pole and tended to the woman and her truck.

Greg Hamilton, a bartender at the Crouching Lion, said the road closing disrupted business at the Inn, but it picked up immediately after the road was opened.