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Kona Fatality 03/10/00

HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT UNIT
SERGEANT SAMUEL V. JELSMA
PHONE: 961-2332
MARCH 10, 2000
G-22537

MEDIA RELEASE

An 18-year-old Konawaena student died Friday afternoon (March 10, 2000) in a car-truck collision earlier in the day on Kuakini Highway near the 116-mile marker in the Keauhou mauka area of North Kona.

The victim was identified as Alex Vancil of a Kailua-Kona address.

Responding to an 8:10 a.m. call, police officers determined that a 1992 Mazda sedan driven by Vancil, the only occupant, was heading south on Kuakini in the inner lane when he attempted to overtake another southbound vehicle in the same lane. As Vancil pulled into the outside southbound lane, his car rear-ended a slow moving 1981 International Harvester dump truck.

Vancil was taken to the Kona Community Hospital, where he later died of his injuries and was pronounced dead at 2:02 p.m. The driver of the dump truck, Robert Murphy, 47, of Captain Cook, was not injured in the accident.

Traffic Enforcement Unit officers are continuing the investigation, and an autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.

Vancil’s death was the seventh traffic fatality on the Big Island so far this year, compared to two at the same time last year.

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