A North Carolina man was killed Tuesday and four people injured, including one critically, in a Big Island three-vehicle collision in Papa'ikou, 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 near Old Mamalahoa Highway, Hawai'i County police Traffic Enforcement Unit investigators said.

The death was the Big Island's ninth traffic fatality of 2008 as compared with eight on the same date last year.

A South Carolina woman, 75, who was a passenger in Melvin's vehicle, and four people in a second vehicle — a man and woman, both 18, and two girls, ages 1 year and 3 months — were taken to Hilo Medical.

The 3-month-old child was transferred to Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu with critical injuries. The South Carolina woman was in stable condition, and the others were in satisfactory condition.

The driver of the third vehicle was not injured. Speed and alcohol are not considered factors in the collision, police said.

The death was the state's 24th traffic fatality of 2008 as compared with 28 at the same time last year.