According to initial reports, police officer Kevin Bailey, 39, was traveling toward Honolulu in his Ford Explorer when a Honda — operated by a suspected drunken driver — made a left turn in front of the officer's oncoming sport utility vehicle at Ka'ai Street.

Bailey swerved to avoid the Honda but his Explorer hit the Honda and then slammed into a concrete block wall, police traffic investigators said. The Explorer then rolled over, coming to rest on its side.

Bailey, who was wearing a seatbelt, was pinned in the Explorer with head and internal injuries and had to wait for firefighters to free him.

He was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in critical condition. He was listed in critical condition as of 10:30 a.m., police said.

The 22-year-old man driving the Honda was not injured but was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to his employment records, Bailey has been a Honolulu police officer for 12 years and is currently assigned to the East Honolulu police district.

Police shut down all town-bound lanes of the highway for about five hours while traffic investigators scoured the area. A contra-flow late was set up on Kalaniana'ole at about 2:20 a.m. to help accommodate town-bound traffic. The entire highway reopened shortly before 5 a.m.

Today's incident comes almost one month after police officer Issac Veal was killed in a one-vehicle crash on the H-2 Freeway while responding to a call for help.

Traffic investigators believe Veal's 2000 Dodge Durango veered onto the left shoulder of the freeway then cut back across the two lanes of traffic and hit a concrete barrier, causing the Durango to flip several times.

Veal, 58, died at the scene.