Hawaiʻi Police Department
Criminal Investigations Section, Area I
Lieutenant Gregory Esteban
Phone: 961-2252
Report No. C14017973
Media Release
A 58-year-old Honokaʻa man died after a car he was working on fell on him.
At 4:10 p.m. Wednesday (July 9), Honokaʻa patrol officers responded to a home on the 45-3200 block of Ohia Street in Honokaʻa, where a man, identified as James Thomas Jones, was unresponsive under a van.
Investigation determined that Jones had been working on the jacked-up van when it collapsed onto him.
Fire/rescue personnel removed him from beneath the van. He was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where he was officially pronounced dead at 9:04 p.m.
Although detectives found no evidence of foul play, the case was initially classified as a coroner’s inquest pending an autopsy. The autopsy Friday morning (July 11) determined that Jones died from asphyxiation do to traumatic chest compression.
The case will be reclassified as a home accident.