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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Weekend crashes on Big Island claim two lives

Advertiser Staff

HILO, Hawai'i — A Pahoa man and a Utah woman were killed in separate crashes on the Big Island over the weekend, police said.

On Saturday, 35-year-old Daniel T. Ekau was the front-seat passenger in a 1988 Honda sedan traveling north on the Pahoa-to-Kalapana Road shortly before 1:11 a.m. when the driver lost control, crossed the center line and struck an embankment near the 16-mile marker.

Ekau, the driver and another passenger all were ejected from the vehicle, and Ekau was pronounced dead at Hilo Medical Center at 5:50 a.m., police said.

The 41-year-old Pahoa man who was allegedly driving and a 19-year-old Pahoa man who was the rear seat passenger were taken to Hilo Medical Center, and from there were flown to The Queen's Medical Center in critical condition, police said.

Police said speed and alcohol were factors in the crash, and said it appeared only Ekau was wearing a seatbelt.

Officers arrested the 41-year-old alleged driver on suspicion of negligent homicide, negligent injury, driving under the influence of an intoxicant and promoting intoxicating liquor to a person younger than 21.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call Officer Robert Pauole at 808-961-8119.

In the second crash, police said, 51-year-old Vicki Lynn Crowley of Draper, Utah, was killed Sunday when the 1991 Harley-Davidson motorcycle she was riding struck a sandbag in the roadway, causing her to lose control.

Police said Crowley was traveling north on the Hawai'i Belt Road shortly before 10:58 a.m. in the right lane at the Hamakua end of Ka'awali'i Gulch when she hit the sandbag, and then struck a wall.

Police said she was not wearing a helmet, and was pronounced dead at Hilo Medical Center at 12:10 p.m.

Speed and alcohol are not believed to be factors in that crash.

Anyone with information about that collision is asked to call Officer Wendall Carter at 808-961-2293.

The deaths are the sixth and seventh traffic fatalities for the Big Island this year, compared with seven by this time last year.