HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT UNIT
SERGEANT SAMUEL V. JELSMA
PHONE: 961-2332
APRIL 8, 2000
G-25252
MEDIA RELEASE
A 50-year-old man died Friday night (April 7, 2000) when his motorcycle collided with a Corvette on the Akoni Pule Highway (Route 270) in North Kohala.
The victim was identified as Daniel Eads of Halaula in North Kohala.
Responding to an 8:45 p.m. call, police officers determined that the victim was riding his 1987 Yamaha motorcycle west on Akoni Pule Highway near the 24-mile marker when he was rear-ended by a 1987 Chevrolet Corvette driven by Cleone Pule, 59, of Union Mill in North Kohala.
Following the collision, the Corvette ran off the shoulder of the roadway and dropped down 70 feet into the Waianae Gulch.
Eads was transported to the Kohala Hospital in Kapaau, where he was pronounced dead at 11:40 p.m. Pule was taken to the North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea, where he was treated for a head injury and later flown to Oahu for further treatment.
Traffic Enforcement Unit officers are continuing the investigation and have ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. Alcohol is believed to have been involved in the collision, and a standard negligent homicide investigation has been initiated.
Eads’ death was the ninth traffic fatality so far this year on the Big Island, compared to three at the same time last year.
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