Biker dies in crash with car
By Curtis Lum and Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writers
A man was killed last night when his motorcycle slammed into a Honda Civic in Halawa Heights.
It was the fourth traffic fatality on O'ahu since Saturday.
Witnesses last night estimated that the motorcyclist was traveling at more than 100 mph when he hit the car in the intersection of Halawa Heights Road and 'Iwa'iwa Street at about 8 p.m.
The impact of the collision was so fierce that it nearly spun the car completely around.
Emergency Medical Services personnel said the motorcyclist was 40 years old and died at Triple Army Medical Center. The 49-year-old woman driving the Honda was taken to Pali Momi Medical Center in stable condition.
Edward Lee and Bryan Higa were headed down Halawa Heights Road and had just made a left turn onto 'Iwa'iwa when they saw a motorcycle zooming toward them.
The two men said they saw the Honda as it was inching out into the intersection and they knew the motorcycle was about to hit the car.
"The motorcycle was coming up full speed; he was flying," Lee said. "It was just whaaaaaa-boom! No screeching of tires or anything."
Lee said the motorcycle flipped over several times. Then the driver, who Lee said was not wearing a helmet, lay motionless on the road.
Higa said the woman in the Honda was screaming. He said he broke into her wrecked car and helped her out. "She was all in shock, she didn't know what happened."
In the other accidents, two people were killed early Saturday when a wrong-way driver on the H-1 Freeway near Waipahu collided with another vehicle.
Bradley Lopes, 33, of Waipahu, was driving a 2000 Toyota pickup west in the freeway's eastbound lanes, police said. Lopes' truck crashed head-on into a 1991 Toyota pickup driven by Jeremy Villanueva, 28, of 'Aiea at 12:16 a.m. Both were killed.
One passenger in Villaneuva's truck, a 26-year-old woman, was critically injured and was taken to The Queen's Medical Center. A 9-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy who also were in the truck escaped serious injury.
In another development in the H-1 collision, a 35-year-old Makiki man said yesterday that he believes the wrong-way driver entered the eastbound lanes from the H-2 tunnel ramp leading to Mililani and Wahiawa.
Christian Young, who works at the Kapolei Safeway, was heading home on the H-1 when he saw the headlights of a vehicle headed westbound on the eastbound side of the freeway. "He was flying, going about 80, when I passed him," Young said. "It was a split second. I thought, 'Hey, the guy is going the wrong way.' "
Young estimated a difference of 10 seconds may have saved his life. "I would have been in the pileup," he said.
Young called The Advertiser yesterday after reading that officials suspected Lopes may have entered the freeway from Paiwa Street in Waipahu.
Young has made himself available to traffic investigators. Anyone who may have seen Lopes' truck enter the freeway should call vehicular homicide investigators at 529-3499.
Also on Saturday William Kalilikane, 43, of Wai'anae was struck and killed by a car on Farrington Highway near Tracks Beach. Police said Kalilikane was standing at the trunk of his parked car, looking inside, when a car went off the roadway and hit him.
The driver of the car that hit him, a 26-year-old Wai'anae man, was taken to Queen's in serious condition.
Reach Curtis Lum at 525-8025 or culum@honoluluadvertiser.com. Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
