Driver pleads not guilty in fatal collision on H-2

The allegedly wrong-way driver in a fatal head-on collision on the H-2 freeway nearly two years ago pleaded not guilty to negligent homicide Tuesday in state court.

Jameson Yong, 23, is scheduled to stand trial in November. He remains free on $15,000 bail.

Honolulu police said Yong was driving his car south in the northbound lanes of the freeway in the early-morning hours of Nov. 19, 2011, when he crashed head-on into a pickup truck about a half-mile south of the Ka Uka Boulevard exit. The impact caused the pickup to flip on its side and sent the car crashing into the median. A northbound sport utility vehicle then crashed into the pickup truck.

The pickup driver, 40-year-old Lance Miyashiro of Wahiawa, was pronounced dead at the scene. He was on his way home from his job as a bouncer at the Mai Tai Bar in Ala Moana Center.

Yong, who had to be extricated from his car by firefighters, went in extremely critical condition to the Queen’s Medical Center, where friends said he underwent multiple surgeries.

The SUV driver, a 58-year-old man, went to the hospital in serious condition.

It’s unclear how Yong wound up on the freeway allegedly driving in the wrong direction, and police investigators never said publicly what may have led to it.

Yong’s parents, who own the car their son was driving, and their insurance carrier agreed last year to a $20,000 settlement with Miyashiro’s parents. The $20,000 is the per person liability limit of the Yongs’ insurance policy.