A dump truck hauling an estimated 20 tons of large rocks down Makakilo Drive collided with another truck and overturned at a major Kapolei intersection yesterday, showering boulders onto three lanes of vehicles waiting at the light.

Two people were seriously injured in the accident, which occurred at 8:36 a.m. where Makakilo Drive, Farrington Highway and Fort Barrette Road intersect.

The site was about 0.1 mile from where a runaway garbage truck on Makakilo Drive plowed through an embankment last November, went airborne and landed in a parking lot, killing a man.

More than one witness expressed amazement that no one was killed in yesterday's barrage that sent dozens of boulders bouncing down Fort Barrette Road for 1/8 mile or more.

"It's boulders coming straight at you a hundred miles an hour," said Dale Burke, whose 1999 Saturn was totaled. The impact of rocks deployed his car's airbags.

Police Lt. Dave Talon said a Pacific Trucking dump truck was coming down Makakilo Drive and either tried to make a left turn onto Farrington Highway or swerved to miss a Medeiros Trucking company truck entering the intersection and heading east on Farrington.

The two trucks collided and the dump truck overturned.

"While turning his vehicle, it tipped over on its right side and discharged its load" onto the northbound vehicles stopped at the light, Talon said.

Emergency Medical Services assistant chief Donnie Gates said the truckers — two men, ages 39 and 47 — were taken to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition.

A 39-year-old woman whose van was hit by boulders was taken to Queen's in good condition, Gates said. Other motorists were treated at the scene for minor cuts and bruises, he said.

In addition to Burke's Saturn, four other vehicles were hauled away by the All Island Towing company — a 1995 Honda Passport SUV, a 2002 Ford cargo van, a 1995 Nissan Quest and a 1997 Mercury Villager van.

Burke said he was returning from the beach with his sister-in-law and her 10-year-old daughter when he pulled up to the righthand northbound lane on Fort Barrette Road. Suddenly, he said, he saw an 18-wheeler "sliding on its side straight at us" at high speed while "throwing boulders."

Burke, chaplain at Hawai'i Pacific University, said it was like being in the front row of a 3-D action movie — only scarier.

Burke's sister-in-law sustained a minor injury to her arm. Otherwise, Burke said, everyone in the car was merely shaken.

"I thought it was lights out," he said.