Media Release (update No. 2)

An autopsy has determined that 34-year-old Jason Snell of Kailua-Kona died from a heart attack and not from injuries he sustained in a motor vehicle/moped crash on February 3.

Snell was operating a 2008 jet moped and traveling south on Alii Drive around 3 p.m. on that date, when he struck the rear of a 1995 Nissan Pathfinder multi-purpose vehicle stopped on the roadway in front of Magic Sands Beach.

The driver of the Nissan, a 16-year-old Kailua-Kona girl, and her passengers, an 8-month-old infant and a 17-year-old girl, were not injured.

Fire rescue personnel took Snell to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. 

Because this death was not caused by the crash, the year-to-date total for traffic fatalities has been reduced from five to four.