KAPAIA — A 16-year-old Kaua‘i High School teen died early Sunday morning, just hours after attending his prom, when the sport utility vehicle he was driving veered off road, and he was ejected from the vehicle. The 16-year-old from Lihu‘e
KAPAIA — A 16-year-old Kaua‘i High School teen died early Sunday morning, just hours after attending his prom, when the sport utility vehicle he was driving veered off road, and he was ejected from the vehicle.
The 16-year-old from Lihu‘e was traveling along Ma‘alo Road, heading makai from Wailua Falls, at about 2:15 a.m., when he apparently lost control of the vehicle, said Cyndi Mei Ozaki, county public information officer.
The vehicle ended up in a pasture, and the boy was ejected from the 2004 Chevrolet multi-purpose vehicle and sustained fatal injuries, Ozaki said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
His name has not been released.
A 17-year-old Hanama‘ulu boy, a passenger in the vehicle, was transported to the Wilcox Memorial Hospital emergency room, where he was treated for minor injuries and released, she added. His name was also not released.
According to friends, he suffered a broken leg.
By Sunday afternoon, a memorial along the road was in place, and nearly a dozen teens sat, stunned, in the back of a small pick-up truck at the site where their friend lay hours before.
A wooden cross and deposits of flowers, including lei from the prom, crowded the shoulder of the road. Another memorial, 10 feet away and along a wire mesh fence, was marked with bodyboards.
“I gave him the purple one,” one of the boys said quietly. “This is where the car overturned.”
A series of pink fluorescent paint marks on the pavement and grass, left by Kaua‘i Police Department investigators, marked the fatal path of the vehicle from where it left the road.
Parts of the vehicle could still be seen yesterday afternoon in the area where it rolled in the pasture.
Portions of the vehicle were also marked by the same fluorescent pink paint that marked the fatal path.
The teens, although bathed in the warmth of the afternoon sun, were deep in thought and reflection over the incident that took away one of their friends.
Cars traversing Ma‘alo Road to and from the popular Wailua Falls lookout could not deter the group from their personal thoughts, although at one point one member burst out, “Go slow. This is 25 miles per hour (speed limit)!” as cars whizzed by.
Earlier, a chaperone for the Kaua‘i High School prom was commenting about how smoothly the prom had gone when a teen-ager asked about an auto accident that took place early Sunday morning.
With the cell-phone tree in full swing, bits and pieces of the tragic mishap began to be revealed: two occupants of a vehicle on “Wailua hill” got into an accident, with one person, a student at Kaua‘i High School, being thrown from the vehicle because he had not been using his seat belt.
One teen said he got the call around 4 a.m. Sunday.
The Kaua‘i High teen is the sixth traffic fatality this year, surpassing the number of traffic deaths in all 2003. He is also the second teen-ager to die behind the wheel this year.
As for the cause of the Sunday-morning accident, Ozaki said it is not known at this time if speed or alcohol are factors in the crash. An investigation is continuing.
Staff Writer Dennis Fujimoto may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or mailto:dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
