A North Carolina man was killed yesterday and four people injured, including one critically, in a Big Island three-vehicle collision in Papaikou, north of Hilo.

Robert Franklin Melvin of Cary, N.C., 65, died at Hilo Medical Center at 8:05 p.m., about three hours after the collision on Hawai'i Belt Road, police Traffic Enforcement Unit investigators said.

The death was the Big Island's ninth traffic fatality of 2008 as compared to eight by the same day last year.

Traffic Enforcement Unit supervisor Sgt. Christopher Gali said Melvin was making a left turn in a 2008 Chevrolet four-door sedan from Old Mamalahoa Highway onto Hawai'i Belt Road when his car was struck by a 1985 Toyota sport-utility vehicle. The impact forced the Chevrolet into the southbound lane where it was struck by a Ford van.

A South Carolina woman, 75, who was a passenger in the Chevrolet, and four people in the Toyota — a man and woman, both 18, and two girls, ages one-year-old and three months — were taken to Hilo Medical Center.

The 3-month-old child was transferred to Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu with critical injuries. Gali said tonight the child is breathing on her own and her condition has improved.

The South Carolina woman was in stable condition and the others in satisfactory condition.

The 54-year-old male driver of the Ford van was not injured.

Speed and alcohol are not considered factors for the collision, police said.

The death was the state's 24th traffic fatality of 2008 as compared to 29 at the same time last year.

The 2008 breakdown as of 4 p.m. today: