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JAYNA OMAYE / JOMAYE@STARADVERTISER.COM
Police investigated the scene of a traffic accident in Waipio Acres Thursday afternoon, which left one man dead and another in critical condition.
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A Mililani area man who apparently sped away from the scene of a minor car accident on Kamehameha Highway Thursday afternoon was killed when the SUV he was driving subsequently slammed into a vehicle parked about two miles down the highway in a roadway construction area.
A worker seated in the flatbed of a GP Roadway Solutions truck was severely injured in the crash, which occurred shortly after 3 p.m. at the highway’s intersection Waikalani Drive. Paramedics treated and transported the worker to a hospital in critical condition, according to an Emergency Medical Services report.
Shortly before the crash in the Waipio Acres area, the sports utility vehicle had apparently rear-ended a pickup truck on the highway near Higgins Road, said Honolulu Police Traffic Lt. Carlene Lau.
Initially, both vehicles pulled to the side of the roadway. But the SUV’s driver, a man in his 60s, then quickly pulled back onto the highway before the other driver could exit his truck, police said.
The pickup’s driver, along with a third driver who had witnessed the collision, followed the fleeing SUV and later told police that the vehicle was traveling at about 70 mph in an area with a posted speed limit of 35 mph. The SUV apparently sped through coned area and then struck the GP Roadway Solutions truck.
The worker seated in the truck’s flatbed, a man in his 30s, suffered severe leg injuries in the crash, Lau said. At the time of the crash, workers were waiting for supervisor to give a go-ahead to pick up cones on the roadway.
The SUV’s driver died at the scene of the crash, according to an EMS report. He was not wearing a seatbelt, police said. There were no passengers in the SUV, and it is not known why the SUV fled the scene of the first collision, Lau said.
