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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Maui teens in fatal car crash on Kula Highway had just left party


Maui News

WAILUKU — The two Wailuku teenagers who died of injuries from a car crash on Kula Highway early Sunday had just left a party in the Waiohuli area before the crash occurred, police said yesterday.

Autopsies performed yesterday on Laula Wallace, 19, and Kaio Fukushima, 16, showed both died of multiple traumatic injuries suffered in the single-vehicle crash on the highway near Hoopalua Drive.
Police are awaiting results of toxicology tests as they continue an investigation into the crash.
Two other males who were injured in the crash were treated and released from Maui Memorial Medical Center on Sunday, said acting Lt. Barry Aoki of the Maui Police Department Traffic Section.
He said police have not found any signs that the car was racing, although it was clearly exceeding the speed limit.
Five males were in the 1994 Honda Civic when it went out of control while it was traveling north on Kula Highway around 1:27 a.m. Sunday, police said. It smashed into the right guardrail, crossed over the centerline and hit the opposite side guardrail, leaving a trail of shattered glass and debris that stretched about 150 feet.
The vehicle was driven by a 19-year-old man from Wailuku, police said. He was not at the scene when police responded to the crash, but was later located by officers.
The other occupants were a 24-year-old Wailuku man who was seated in the front passenger seat and a 15-year-old Kahului boy who was sitting in the back seat with Wallace and Fukushima.
Police said the three back-seat passengers were ejected through the shattered rear window of the car. It appeared that seatbelts were not used by the occupants, police said.
Police said Fukushima was a Baldwin High School student. He died after he was transported by ambulance to Maui Memorial Medical Center on Sunday, police said.
Wallace was being driven downhill in a pickup truck that had been following the car and was pronounced dead by emergency workers who met the truck on the highway near Aapueo Parkway, police said.
Police said both vehicles were coming from a party in the Waiohuli area. Police said there were reports of loud disorderly conduct also in the Waiohuli area that night.
The two deaths bring Maui County's traffic fatalities to 10 for 2009, compared with 12 at the same time last year.