Victim in Kauai fatal head-on collision identified
Kauai police identified the victim in a fatal head-on traffic collision on Tuesday night as 28-year-old Samuel Mitzel from Kilauea.
Mitzel was driving a Dodge SUV northbound on Kuhio Highway near Wailapa Road about 7:25 p.m. when a Ford pickup truck apparently crossed the center line, sideswiped a southbound Jeep SUV, and struck the vehicle Mitzel was driving. The collision overturned the Dodge, the Kauai Police Department said.
The driver of the Ford truck, a 51-year-old Kilauea man, was arrested on Wednesday after his release from Wilcox Hospital on suspicion of negligent injury and negligent homicide. He was released pending investigation.
A 55-year-old Kilauea man, who was a passenger in the SUV, was taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital and then flown to the Queen’s Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition, police said. The Jeep’s driver, a 50-year-old woman, was taken to Wilcox for treatment and was later released.