Updated at 3:40 p.m., Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Autopsy shows head trauma cause of catamaran death
Advertiser Staff
A 48-year-old man killed Sunday after a mast snapped on a Maui catamaran died as a result of "massive blunt trauma to the head," the Maui County medical examiner said today.Hal W. Pulfer II of Illinois was aboard the Kiele V catamaran for dinner and whale watching when the mast snapped after 5 p.m. about three miles off the coast of Kahana, Maui, according to a news release from Maui County.
Two other passengers, a couple from Kaua'i, were admitted to Maui Memorial Medical Center Sunday evening with injuries sustained in the incident, the county said.
The injured 57-year-old male was released Sunday evening. The 46-year-old female is currently being treated at Maui Memorial Medical Center, the county said.
The male received contusions to the right eye, elbows and back. The female sustained closed head trauma, an eye injury, and spinal vertebrae, rib and left collar bone fractures.
Coast Guard crews conducting an air search late yesterday afternoon located the broken vessel on the south east side of Moloka'i.
The incident involved the evacuation of 52 people that included five crew members. Two other catamarans, the Teralani 3 and the Gemini assisted Coast Guard and Maui Fire Rescue personnel in the evacuation.
Pulfer, of Highland Park, Ill., was visiting Maui with his wife and three children, ages 7, 10 and 12.
His family has returned to Illinois, the county said in a news release.
