A 22-year-old Koloa man was killed, and a 17-year-old woman from Kekaha and a 21-year-old man from Poi‘pu were critically injured, in a one-car crash early Saturday morning. At 12:40 a.m. Sunday, a 17-year-old female driver from Kekaha, traveling eastbound
A 22-year-old Koloa man was killed, and a 17-year-old woman from Kekaha and a 21-year-old man from Poi‘pu were critically injured, in a one-car crash early Saturday morning.
At 12:40 a.m. Sunday, a 17-year-old female driver from Kekaha, traveling eastbound on Po‘ipu Road in a 1995 four-door Honda sedan, apparently crossed the center line and hit a tree.
The girl, along with her passengers – a 22-year-old man from Koloa and a 21-year-old man from Po‘ipu – were transported to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. The 22-year-old man died at the hospital.
The 21-year-old was transported via Hawaii Air Ambulance to Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu.
The three were not wearing seatbelts, said Cyndi Mei Ozaki, county public information officer.
“Speeding is a likely factor” in the crash, said Ozaki, “but police are still investigating.”
Early reports indicated that a Hawaii Air Ambulance aircraft could not be dispatched to pick up the injured victims due to the probable crash of a Cessna 414-A Chancellor aircraft operated by the company; the airplane went missing on the Big Island early Saturday morning.
However, that proved to be false.
“We were called about the three patients and one other critically-ill (cardiac) patient at Wilcox,” said Dr. Mitchel Rosenfeld, Medical Director for Hawaii Air Ambulance. “Two crews, including myself, were sent out.”
By the time the two planes reached Lihu‘e Airport, it was determined by Wilcox Hospital doctors that two of the patients, the 17-year-old girl and the 22-year-old, were not likely to survive or not stable enough to make the trip, said the doctor. The cardiac patient and the 21-year-old were transported to O‘ahu.
The 22-year-old later died of his injuries. It was unknown as of press time whether the girl had survived through the day on Sunday. Ozaki said the names of the victims could not be released before conformation of notification of the next of kin.
“There was never any doubt” that the Air Ambulances would be coming to Kaua‘i, Rosenfeld said, adding that the Ambulance crew has multiple planes available for transport to the critically-ill throughout the islands.
“We are going to do anything we can to continue our service to the community,” said the doctor. He flew to Kaua‘i early Saturday morning “with full confidence with the plane, staff, and crew.”
The company has operated in Hawai‘i for 25 years and is the state’s only private fixed-wing aeromedical provider. It flies more than 2,000 missions annually and has not had an accident in about 32,000 flights, according to a statement provided by the company.
“They did eight missions” Saturday, including the two from Kaua‘i, and more Sunday, said Darcie Scharfenstein, a media representative Hawai‘i Air Ambulance.
A second day of searching Sunday failed to turn up any trace of the twin-engine Cessna 414-A that went missing early Saturday morning, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson said.
The search, which covered 3,500 square miles, was set to resume Monday morning, Johnson said.
There were two flight paramedics and one pilot aboard the missing plane, which was en route from Honolulu to Hilo. It was last heard from about 20 miles southeast of Upolu Point near the Waimea Airport at around 1:30 a.m., according to Coast Guard data.
A C-130 Hercules search and rescue plane and HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from its Barbers Point station resumed the search at daylight, according to the Coast Guard. The Hawaii County Fire Department helicopter and aircraft from the Civil Air Patrol and Hawaii Air National Guard also joined the search.
The pilot may have turned inland rather than follow the usual route along the Hamakua Coast to avoid heavy winds and rain, said Lt. Danny Shaw of the Coast Guard command center in Honolulu.
“They didn’t report any trouble and they didn’t report any kind of distress at that point,” Shaw said.
The plane is equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, but no signal was received, he said.
A woman who lives near a forest preserve told authorities she heard the sputtering engine of a plane about the time of the air ambulance’s last radio contact.
The search was concentrated over land in the large area between Waimea and Hilo, but also included a search of the coastline, Shaw said.
“It would be really hard to see a plane if it did go down” in the dense forest, fire Capt. Clint Coloma said.
The pilot and two flight paramedics were aboard the plane. Family and friends have identified the paramedics as Mandy Shiraki, a longtime employee of the Honolulu Emergency Medical Service, and Joseph Daniel Villiaros, 39, of Mililani, a Honolulu firefighter assigned to the Waiau Fire Station who received the Honolulu Fire Department’s Medal of Honor in September for disarming a gunman during a medical call.
Villiaros’ mother, Dominica Villiaros, said Sunday that her faith in God enabled her to go on.
“Whatever the Lord wants, it’s OK,” she said. “Because for one thing, my husband and I, we’re older, years are passing by, and I know that we’ll all be in the same place together. And if God chose to take him, it’s just that he went before us.”
Villiaros’ 14-year-old daughter Kilani help out hope.
“We all think he’s still alive because he’s a really strong person, with survival training,” she said.
The nine-year-old boy who was to have been picked up in Hilo, was later flown to Honolulu on a military medical evacuation flight. His condition was not known.
Staff Writer Tom Finnegan may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mailto:tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
