2nd accident occurs later by The Garden Island A head-on collision between two cars killed two people on Kuhio Highway in Nukolii late yesterday. According to county spokesperson Mary Daubert, a 32-year-old Lihu‘e man died at the scene near Hilton
2nd accident occurs later
by The Garden Island
A head-on collision between two cars killed two people on Kuhio Highway in Nukolii late yesterday.
According to county spokesperson Mary Daubert, a 32-year-old Lihu‘e man died at the scene near Hilton Kaua‘i Beach Resort and a 42-year-old Kapa‘a man died after being transported to Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
The wife of the Lihu‘e man and his 6-month-old child are in critical condition, and as of this writing, they are being prepared for an airlift to The Queens Medical Center.
There were no passengers in the vehicle driven by the Kapa‘a man.
The accident occurred around 5 p.m. near Marine Camp and closed a portion of the highway from Lihu‘e to Wailua for over three hours.
Traffic backed up as far as the Rice Street, Kuhio Highway intersection in Lihu‘e. Traffic on the Kapa‘a end was as far back at Coconut Marketplace, according to radio reports.
Crews were still laboring to clear the wreckage and reopen the highway at 7:30 p.m. Shortly after police officers started to escort traffic through the previously closed section of highway in a northbound lane only.
The highway was completely reopened by 8:30 p.m. Traffic was still moving slowly well after the highway fully reopened.
More information will be made available as it is released.
Names of those who died have not been released pending notification.
An investigation into the details of the cause is being conducted.
Shortly after traffic began to clear from the initial accident, a car involved in another two vehicle accident nearby, at the Veteran’s Center in Lihu‘e, flipped, landing in its roof. The older model Toyota flipped after being struck by a Chevrolet SUV coming out of the Westin entrance headed south.
The driver of the Toyota was able to get out of the vehicle on his own, and the family in the SUV appeared unharmed.
Northbound traffic was completely stopped at 9 last night while southbound traffic was being diverted through Vidinha Stadium.
