Kunia Road crash leaves 1 dead, 1 seriously hurt

A 26-year-old Schofield Barracks man is dead and a 50-year-old Waipahu man was taken to the hospital in serious condition after a crash Friday morning on Kunia Road.

The older man, a mechanic, was driving an Allied Machinery utility truck, said Joe Johnson, a sales employee for the company.

The utility truck was headed north at about 10:45 a.m. when the younger man, driving a car southbound, crossed the centerline and crashed into the truck, Honolulu police said.

The younger man was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

After the accident police closed Kunia Road between Anonui Street and Kupuna Loop for about three hours.

Police said speed was an apparent factor in the crash.

The fatality marked the 15th on Oahu this year compared with 18 for the same period last year.

A motorcyclist died after his vehicle collided with a truck on Kunia Road on Dec. 6. In January 2011 a 12-year-old boy and a 42-year-old Waianae woman died in a five-vehicle crash on Kunia Road.

One of the worst accidents involving farmworkers in Hawaii occurred on Kunia Road in 2006, when four women riding in the bed of a pickup truck died. The pickup veered into the path of a cement truck after avoiding a crash with a car.