Lisa Matsumoto died after a head-on crash on the H-1 today. Officials said the vehicle may have been driving in the wrong direction. Courtesy photo

Matsumoto was driving a green Toyota Camry in the wrong direction and collided with a black Toyota Corolla being driven by a 35-year-old woman, who was also injured in the 3:32 a.m. crash.

The younger woman, who swerved to the right to avoid Matsumoto's vehicle, was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition with head and leg injuries.

It took more than an hour for Honolulu firefighters to free the woman from the wreckage.

A 21-year-old man whose car crashed while trying to avoid the collision was treated at the scene and did not have to be taken to the hospital, said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department.

Matsumoto, a graduate of Mid-Pacific Institute and the University of Hawai'i, was one of Hawai'i's best-known local playwrights and children's authors. Her works have been staged all over the state, and 'Ohi'a Productions, which she co-founded, has offered in-depth theater programs in several schools.

Burton White, artistic director and manager of Hawai'i Theatre, where some of Matsumoto's plays were staged, said Matsumoto was "a wonderfully talented woman who touched people who knew her and who worked for her."

"She was just a bright spot and she had the largest heart of anybody I knew, always giving, always positive. An exceptional talent. It's a loss," he said.

Recently, she had been working with composer-actress Roslyn Catracchia to adapt their musical "On Dragonfly Wings" to reach a wider audience. The musical, inspired by Alana Dung, a Hawai'i girl who lost her battle with leukemia at age 3, had been selected for the 12th annual ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles.

"She and I were right in the middle of working on a draft ... which was due today for a performance at the University of Georgia in April," Catracchia said. "She knew exactly what she wanted to do. ... I need to get this out as part of her legacy. It's become a lot more powerful thing."

The duo planned to take the play to the Mainland, with hopes of getting it on Broadway, said Matsumoto's attorney Jeff Portnoy, who had been working with her on the rights to the musical.