Friends ID dead driver in wrong-way collision on H-2
Honolulu police investigated a fatal 3-car crash on the H-2 Freeway early this morning.
Police block the north-bound lanes of the H-2 Freeway near Ka Uka Boulevard as traffic investigators examine the scene of a fatal, 3-car crash involving a wrong-way driver.
The H-2 Freeway remained closed as the sun began to rise this morning after a crash at about 2:15 a.m. closed the north-bound lanes.
A wrong-way driver on the H-2 freeway in Waipio caused a collision that killed one man and seriously injured two others.
A friend identified the dead driver as Lance Miyashiro. Police said he was 40 and from Wahiawa.
David Ferreira, owner of Mililani Pets, said Miyashiro was a manager and worked for the store for 25 years.
Ferreira was struggling with the Miyashiro’s death and declined to talk about the crash.
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“He was a great person,” Ferreira said. “We became family.”
Police closed the north-bound lanes of the freeway for more than four hours while they investigated the crash.
A white BMW, driven by a Waianae man, 21, heading south in the north-bound lanes of the freeway, collided head-on with a 2005 Toyota Tacoma pickup driven by a Wahiawa man, 40, about a half-mile south of. the Ka Uka Boulevard exit, police said.
Police Traffic Division Lt. Robert Towne said a the pickup truck overturned while the white 1992 BMW hit the median. A third vehicle, a 2005 Jeep Liberty, driven by a Mililani man, 58,was unable to stop in time and struck the pickup, Towne said.
The pickup driver was pronounced dead on the scene, Towne said. The BMW driver, who had to be extricated from his car by firefighters, went to the Queen’s Medical Center in extremely critical condition while the man in the Jeep was hospitalized in serious condition with unknown injuries.
There were no other occupants in any of the three vehicles involved, Towne said. It is unknown if alcohol was a factor in the crash, he said. All three men appeared to be wearing seatbelts.
Indications are the BMW entered the freeway from the Ka Uka Boulevard off ramp, Towne said.
The incident shut down access to the north-bound H-2 Freeway from the H-1 Freeway in Pearl City to Ka Uka Boulevard at about 2:15 a.m. The freeway reopened at about 6:40 a.m.. Motorists heading towards Mililani and beyond were redirected to Kamehameha Highway.
The death was the 47th on Oahu roads this year compared to 53 at this time in 2010.
It is the second time in less than six months that a vehicle traveling the wrong way on H-2 Freeway during early morning hours resulted in a fatality.
Last July 19, a wrong-way driver heading northbound in the southbound lanes near the Pineapple Road Overpass collided with two other vehicles. The first driver was killed and the drivers of the other vehicles were seriously injured
