Hawai‘i Police Department
Traffic Enforcement Unit
Sergeant Christopher D. Gali
Phone: 961-2332
May 28, 2011
Report No. C11014166
Media Release
A 22-year-old Hilo man was killed Saturday (May 28) from injuries he sustained in a motor vehicle/moped crash at the intersection of Kino‘ole Street and Hualālai Street in Hilo.
Responding to a 9:59 p.m. call, South Hilo patrol and Traffic Enforcement Unit officers determined that a 41-year-old Hilo man was operating a 2007 Ford van and traveling south on Kino‘ole Street when he made a left turn onto Hualālai Street failing to yield the right of way and struck a moped traveling north.
The van dragged the victim and the moped east on Hualālai Street at which time the moped operator was dislodged from the van at the intersection of Huaālai Road and Mauna Kea Street.
The van driver fled the scene with the moped still underneath the vehicle to an apartment building on Banyan Drive.
Fire Rescue personnel took the moped operator to Hilo Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:41 p.m.
The moped operator was not wearing a helmet.
The driver of the van, Keolaokalani W. Kailianu, 41, of Hilo, was arrested for suspicion of negligent homicide in the first degree, operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant, accident involving death or serious bodily injury and no insurance.
Kailianu is being held at the Hilo Police Station cellblock pending further investigation.
Traffic Enforcement Unit officers have requested an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
Anyone with information is asked to call Officer Paul Kim at 961-2332.
This is the 10th traffic fatality on the Big Island this year compared with 14 at the same time last year.