Kau is grieving the loss of a Naalehu couple among the five dead after Wednesday’s head-on collision near Pahala.
David Taylor said his identical twin, Richard Kinser Taylor, 64, and his girlfriend, Trinidad "Trini" Myra Lei Ballesteros, 56, were heading to Pahala to visit her sick mother when the accident occurred.
"My biggest bad feeling about the thing is that they burned to death," he said. "He may have been dead before the fire started, but from what witnesses said, she was still alive.
"The flames engulfed the cab," he said. "By the time they were able to put the fire out, they were burned beyond recognition. It’s bad enough you get into an accident and die. Being burned up is the worst."
The couple was riding in Richard Taylor’s Ford F-350 when a Nissan sedan crossed the centerline and hit the truck, which overturned and erupted in flames.
An autopsy revealed the car driver, Donald Ingoglia, 73, of Sacramento, Calif., had a medical condition, apparently causing him to lose control of the car, police said.
He and his son, Philip A. Ingoglia, 39, of Costa Rica, died at the scene. Philip Ingoglia’s son, Isidora, 9, was flown to Kona Community Hospital, where he died.
Taylor, a Naalehu native, was a recently retired truck driver and commercial fisherman. He bought the truck to haul a boat he recently finished building, "but he never got a chance to use it," his brother said.
He was family-oriented, caring for their 92-year-old mother, and "very friendly, very outgoing," his brother said.
Former employer Bob Taylor said Richard was "a good driver and a hard worker and had a lot of heart," adding, "We’re going to miss him and his girlfriend, Trini, who was loved by everyone in the community."
Each leaves behind four children and numerous grandchildren.
Ballesteros grew up in Pahala and raised her family in Naalehu. Daughter Rae Lynn Ballesteros-Takiue said news of the accident spread quickly, and people began calling, saying the truck looked like Taylor’s.
"For us we needed to know if it was our mom," she said. "At first we were in denial, hoping it was not her."
