Motorist rams truck, police SUV in Makaha

A three-car crash that critically injured a Honolulu police officer Friday night was so loud it set off car alarms, recalled a Makaha resident who lives near the crash site.

"I was in the house, there was (a) big crash — no brakes, nothing," Louis Costa, 55, who lives in the cul-de-sac at the end of Kapakai Place, said in an interview Saturday afternoon. "All those guys’ car alarms — everything going off."

Neighbors described a late-night scene in which a speeding white Mercedes sport utility vehicle heading toward Kaena Point crashed into the officer’s SUV near the intersection of Farrington Highway and Water Street.

The collision around 11:20 p.m. caused the officer’s vehicle to flip over twice and land upside down on a concrete wall at the corner of Farrington Highway and Kapakai Place.

The driver of the Mercedes, a 33-year-old Makaha man, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, and excessive speed was a factor in the crash, police said. His passenger, a woman in her 30s, was taken to the hospital in serious-to-critical condition, according to an Emergency Medical Services report.

After crashing into the officer’s Toyota 4Runner, the Mercedes crossed the center line and hit a pickup truck traveling toward town, police said.

Witnesses said a family, including a mom, dad and several children, was traveling in the truck, and a young boy’s scalp was cut. EMS said a 4-year-old boy was transported to a hospital in stable condition. No other passengers in the truck were injured.

Charmell Cordeiro, whose backyard is along the highway and directly across the street from the crash, said the scene was traumatic and she wishes she hadn’t seen it.

"She was so bloody, but he was moving," Cordeiro, 41, said of the Mercedes’ passenger and driver. "She was moving at first, and then she kind of just like (put her head down and passed out) … he just said, ‘Call an ambulance, we need an ambulance,’ and I already was yelling at my mom to call an ambulance, so she did."

Fifteen-year-old Ronnie Joseph, who lives a few houses down from Water Street near Kiapa Place, said he heard the crash and ran down the highway with a few other men to help flip the police officer’s vehicle over.

"We busted the window (to) try to look if the guy was in the front seat, but he wasn’t," Joseph said. "I guess he was in the back all curled up, so me and my uncle tried to open the back door but it was jammed in … and the cops arrived, so we just let them (pull him out)."

Costa said the officer "was out cold, he was like not even moving," and that the officer’s SUV was so badly damaged he could see through the bottom of the vehicle to the inside when it was still upside-down.

Neighbors said the house near where the car landed is vacant, but that the owners return periodically to maintain the lawn.