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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 3:45 p.m., Friday, August 17, 2007

French tourists killed in Maui crash identified

Advertiser Staff

Three visitors killed when their car veered off the road in Haleakala National Park on Maui Thursday have been identified.

The driver of the vehicle and sole survivor of the accident is 60 year-old Bernard Ortolan from Sceaux, France, according to the National Park Service.

His wife, Anne Verger, 58, was declared dead at the scene.

The second victim was 65-year-old Rolande Andina of Paris, who was traveling solo with a tour group. The third victim was 49-year old Philippe Chaigneau from Paris.

He is survived by his wife and two teenage children, who were traveling in a separate vehicle, according to the service.

The visitors were killed Thursday when their car went off a section of Crater Road without guardrails and dropped 12 to 15 feet into a gulch.

Ortolan, the driver, was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in serious but stable condition, said Sharon Ringsven, a ranger at Haleakala National Park.

The accident occurred at an elevation of about 8,000 feet, two miles above park headquarters.

The red Chevy Cobalt was traveling down the park's main road when it went off to the right and into a gulch.

The accident happened on a 25-yard stretch of road without guardrails, or even much of a shoulder.

All that is between a vehicle and a steep drop-off are three plastic reflector poles.