A Hauula man who was charged in connection with a critical crash while driving drunk in East Honolulu on Saturday night told police that he rear-ended a truck carrying his friends and caused it to flip and hit a rock wall, according to court documents.
Justin N. Bush, 24, appeared in court Tuesday after he was charged with first-degree attempted murder, three counts of second-degree attempted murder, one count of first-degree assault, two counts of attempted first-degree assault, three counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, criminal property damage, drunken driving and driving with a suspended license for a previous drunken driving offense. He is being held at Oahu Community Correctional Center in lieu of $200,000 bail and is scheduled to appear again in court Thursday.
According to court documents, a witness told police an SUV and a Nissan Titan pickup sped past him, either racing or chasing each other toward town on Kalanianaole Highway at about 10:15 p.m.
The witness said he saw the SUV accelerate and rear-end the pickup at least two times, then sideswipe the driver side of the truck, causing it to flip on its side and crash into a rock wall on Waa Street, court documents said.
When the witness stopped to help, the driver of the SUV also stopped. A man and a woman got out of the SUV, approached the damaged pickup, then ran back into their vehicle and fled, documents said.
Paramedics took the truck’s driver and front-seat passenger to the Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition. A back-seat passenger was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
A responding officer found Bush several blocks from the crash, standing in the middle of Kalanianaole at Waiele Street and appearing frantic, according to court documents.
Bush told the officer that he was chasing his friends who were in the truck and caused the pickup to crash, documents said. Bush said he stopped to check on his friends but fled with his girlfriend in a panic. Bush argued with the victims before the crash, police said.
Bush failed a field sobriety test that night and a breath test with a preliminary blood alcohol content of 0.128, more than 11⁄2 times the legal limit of 0.08, court documents said.
