Jason Shane Levy "chose a pretty rocky path" in life, his younger sister said. But things were looking up.

He had gotten out of jail, gone to rehab, and was holding down a job when he reconnected with a girlfriend from his teenage years and married last fall, Jennifer Gerrior said.

But early Thursday morning, the 43-year-old Kalihi man died on Likelike Highway after falling asleep at the wheel of his car. The Saturn sport utility vehicle ran off the road and flipped over.

His wife, Candi, who was sleeping on the back seat, suffered spinal injuries and was in stable condition, officials and Levy’s father said.

Levy would have turned 44 today.

Police Lt. Bobby Towne said the couple was returning from a fishing trip in Hauula, and Levy apparently fell asleep at the wheel. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Levy was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the SUV; his wife, however, was not ejected, Towne said.

Towne said Levy was not speeding; it was unknown whether alcohol was involved.

Portions of Likelike Highway on the town side of the Wilson Tunnel were closed for three hours and reopened at 6:15 a.m.

The accident occurred in the town-bound lane of Likelike Highway near Kula Kolea Drive.

The traffic death was the 41st on Oahu this year, compared with 43 at the same time last year.

Jason and Candi Levy, 42, were living mostly at his father’s Hauula beach house, but also stayed at another family home in Kalihi Valley, his family said.

"I’m not sure where they were going," said his father, James Levy. "Probably down here (Kalihi)."

James Levy was watching the morning news when he saw the accident on TV.

"When they showed the back end of the car, it looked like the back end of his car, so I started calling his wife and him on the phone, and I texted him," Levy said. "I got no reply."

He called police, left his phone number, and later got a call with the bad news.

"I was in shock," he said.

"He was a good son," he said. "He always had problems, but we got along. We saw eye to eye."

When asked to describe Jason, he said, "He was my son."

Jason was the family’s only boy, the middle child between two daughters.

James Levy visited his daughter-in-law in the hospital, where she was in stable condition with a spinal injury.

"It’s going to take time to heal," he said, adding that she didn’t need surgery and was moving her arms and legs.

Jason Levy met Candi through mutual family friends at the Hauula beach house when she was 16 and he was a couple years older. But she moved to the mainland.

They wrote to each other, and about 25 years later, Levy searched and found Candi on Facebook, and rekindled their romance. They married in October.

After some petty theft convictions, most recently in 2007, a misdemeanor conviction for possession of burglary tools, and rehab for drugs, Levy got a job at Young Laundry, where he worked until last fall.

He was between jobs at the time of his death, but he kept busy helping his father fix up the deteriorating beach house, and helped around the Kalihi house as well, his father said.

He loved all kinds of water sports, including free diving, fishing, spear fishing and crabbing, his family said. He caught a big crab last weekend and used to catch ulua and papio "when there were fish," said Gerrior, the sister.

Gerrior said she and her brother were inseparable growing up, but that they had drifted apart over the last several years.

"In my estimation, he was a genius," which unfortunately was his downfall because he couldn’t do everything he wanted to accomplish, she said.

Levy graduated from Castle High School in 1987.

With friends who made bad decisions, "he chose a pretty rocky path, and it’s unfortunate," Gerrior said. "It happens, but I know it was still him. He was still there. He’s at peace now. Wherever he is, he’s fine."

Gerrior said the loss will also be great for Jason’s son, Lenny, 14, who visited from Kauai on school breaks, and had recently moved back to Oahu with his mother.

"I’m really happy no one else got hurt," she said. "I’m really happy it was quick."

Levy also leaves behind his mother, Irene Tataishi, and an older sister.

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Star-Advertiser reporter Gregg K. Kakesako contributed to this report.