Kona fatality 05-23-10

Hawai’i Police Department
Traffic Enforcement Unit
Sergeant Christopher D. Gali
Phone: 961-2332
May 23, 2010
Report No. C10014014

Media Release

A 62-year-old Kealakekua man died Sunday (May 23) after being involved in a motor vehicle/motorcycle crash at the intersection of Route 190 and Mahilani Drive in North Kona.

Responding to a 6:45 p.m. call, Kona patrol and Traffic Enforcement Unit officers determined that a 31-year-old Kailua-Kona man was operating a 2006 Toyota pick-up truck and traveling  north on Route 190 when he started to make a left turn onto Mahilani Drive. The motorcycle operator, also traveling north, started to overtake the Toyota pick-up truck in a no-passing zone when they collided. He was not wearing a helmet.

Fire rescue personnel took the motorcycle operator to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m. 

The Toyota pick-up driver and his passenger abandoned the vehicle on Mahilani Drive and walked away from the scene. They were located at a home in the Kona Palisades subdivision.

The driver was arrested for negligent homicide, accident involving death or serious bodily injury, operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant and consuming/possessing intoxicating liquor while operating a motor vehicle.

The passenger in the vehicle, a 26-year-old Kailua-Kona man was arrested for accident involving death or serious bodily injury and consuming/possessing intoxicating liquor while a passenger in a motor vehicle.

Both men are being held pending further investigation.

The name of the motorcycle operator is being withheld pending positive identification and notification of the next of kin.

Traffic Enforcement Unit officers have ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.

Police ask anyone with information about this case to call Officer Thomas Koyanagi at 326-4646, extension 229.



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