The unanticipated results of a Sunday afternoon road race on Koke’e Road are stark and graphic: Six people injured enough to require hospital treatment, five with broken bones, four confined overnight, three vehicles involved, two treated and released. The accident
The unanticipated results of a Sunday afternoon road race on Koke’e Road are stark and graphic: Six people injured enough to require hospital treatment, five with broken bones, four confined overnight, three vehicles involved, two treated and released.
The accident occurred as the result of an apparent road race down Koke’e Road early Sunday afternoon. When the racers came around a blind turn one rammed head-on into a car full of visitors, according to police reports.
A pair of American Medical Response ambulance crews, from Waimea and Koloa, were dispatched to the scene, and three people from each of the crunched cars were transported by AMR to West Kauai Medical Center (Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital) in Waimea.
As of yesterday afternoon, one victim was still in the hospital in Waimea, in stable condition. Two other victims were transported via private vehicle to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. It was not known by press time if they were still at Wilcox, or their conditions.
Kauai Police Department officers Darla Abbatiello and Shawn Hanna were the first KPD personnel to respond.
According to police reports and eyewitness accounts, one of the downhill racers crossed the center line of Koke’e Road coming around a blind turn near the 13-mile marker.
Speed was a factor in this crash, according to police.
