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Victims in fatal Keaau collision identified

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  • DARYL LEE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

    The Toyota sports utility vehicle then collided with a 2005 Ford pickup truck, also traveling west, police said.

  • DARYL LEE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
  • DARYL LEE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

  • DARYL LEE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

  • DARYL LEE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

  • DARYL LEE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

  • DARYL LEE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

Hawaii County police identified two people killed Tuesday in a three-vehicle traffic collision on Route 130, also known as the Keaau-Pahoa Road.

Police said Sean Magee, 26 and Eleanor Benedict, 86, both of Keaau, died when a 2012 Nissan four-door sedan, driven by Magee, traveling east on Route 130 crossed the centerline in the area of the 2-mile marker in Keaau and collided with a 2002 Toyota RAV 4 that was traveling west on the road at about 1:46 p.m.

The Toyota sports utility vehicle then collided with a 2005 Ford pickup truck, also traveling west, police said.

Benedict was a passenger in the RAV 4 sports utility vehicle. The driver of the Toyota, a 54-year-old Keaau woman was taken to the Hilo Medical Center for treatment of a leg injury.

The driver of the Ford truck, a 24-year-old Hilo man, was not injured.

Magee and Benedict were both pronounced dead at the Hilo Medical Center at 6:30 p.m., police said.

It is unknown if speed, alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash.

Traffic investigators initiated negligent homicide and coroner’s inquest cases and ordered autopsies to determine the exact cause of death for both victims.

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  • This can happen to anyone at anytime on the roads. Please be careful everyone. If you going party try to have a designated driver. No one wants to lose a loved one during the holidays. Condolences.

  • My deepest ALOHA to their ohana. Hope the injured woman has a speedy recovery. Slow down people, don’t drink and drive, wear your seat belts, and put away the cellphone. Not worth it. Another tragic accident during the holidays. So sad…

    • Agree. Unless it’s a medical condition or mechanical failure I’m glad that lowlife is terminated. That’s one less threat I have to deal with. Just too bad an innocent person also had to die. Now watch the SA censor me because I didn’t give my condolences.

      • You’re both no-class. 007 gloats that a human being is dead, Moto calls him a “lowlife” without a shred of evidence or any personal knowledge of the deceased.

        For all you know, he had a seizure or some other medical emergency. That’s for the coroner to determine — but no, you two no-class gotta rush to judgment.

      • They’ll censor people for foul language, threats and what have you (I think your occasional face-sitting fantasies probably skate close to the edge) not for an absence of class.

        If you want to tout your reading comprehension, go ahead. I mean, you comprehension is so profound that you can deduce facts that haven’t been reported — so astounding that you can judge peoples’ entire existence based on their name, vehicle type and age.

        I hope that some tragedy in your family never ends up reported here and is subject to the tender mercies of someone like you.

  • Judging by the picture, these two vehicles contacted each other right in the middle of each other. Strange. Most head on strike each other only at the very corner of the vehicle, signaling the awareness of avoiding each other.

  • I drive this stretch of road every day. This is thew new section that was just open about a year now. There is nothing wrong with this stretch of highway or the vast majority of folks who travel on it daily. In this case, all could have been avoided had Magee chosen to simply slow da f down. And now he is dead.

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