HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
TRAFFIC SERVICES SECTION
LIEUTENANT ERNEST E. CORREIA
PHONE: 961-2225
AUGUST 30, 1999
MEDIA RELEASE
The Hawaii County Police Department has reclassified a traffic accident in which a man was killed at the Kailua Pier as a major non-traffic fatality.
Joe Henry Kahananui, 35, of Kailua-Kona, died early Saturday (August 28, 1999) when his 1979 Chevrolet pickup truck plunged off Kailua Pier near the boat launching area and landed upside down in the water.
The victim was found in the bed of the pickup between the truck and a cement piling of the pier. Officers pulled the victim from the bed of the truck, and bystanders administered cardiopulmonary respiration, but failed to revive him. He was later pronounced dead at the Kona Community Hospital.
The death, originally classified as a traffic fatality, was reclassified as a non-traffic fatality because it didn’t occurred on a public roadway.
The reclassification brings to 20 the number of traffic fatalities on the Big Island so far this year, compared to 26 at the same time last year.
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