Honolulu man dies in H-3 crash

By Karen Blakeman and Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writers

A 39-year-old Honolulu man was killed yesterday in Kane'ohe after another driver crossed a highway median and went into oncoming traffic on a rain-damped H-3.

Police said the 49-year-old driver of a 2001 Chevy van was headed east on H-3 near the Kamehameha off-ramp at about 7:20 a.m. when he crossed the grassy median and went into the westbound lanes, where the 39-year-old man was driving in a 2000 Ford van. The Ford hit the rear of the Chevy.

The driver of the Ford was killed at the scene near the Pali Golf Course.

His three passengers — a man and two women — and the driver of the Chevy were taken to The Queen's Medical Center. None received life-threatening injuries.

Police said the driver, also a Honolulu man, who crossed the median appeared to be speeding in heavy rain.

HFD Capt. Emmit Kane said both vans appeared to be commercial vehicles.

The Chevy van appeared to be used by a "flower-type business," he said. The Ford van appeared to be part of a cleaning business, he said, and contained several five-gallon containers of unidentified chemicals that had broken open because of the accident.

"So HAZMAT (the hazardous materials unit) was called to the scene," Kane said. "They determined that the chemicals were household cleaning materials in commercial quantity. Basically, the hazard was minimal."

Police said both westbound lanes were closed to traffic until around 1 p.m.