SUV goes off Valley Isle cliff, killing woman, 37, from Haiku

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2016 May 29 CTY - COURTESY PHOTO BY TOM JOHNSON. A woman died and another was critically injured Sunday afternoon after the vehicle they were riding in ran off Hana Highway and plunged 200 feet off a cliff. The incident occurred around 4:42 p.m. in an area fronting St. Peter Catholic Mission, about four miles from Hana, the Maui Fire Department said by email. The vehicle landed on a lava rock outcropping surrounded by water. Firefighters pried the women from the vehicle and airlifted them to a designated landing site where paramedics were waiting. One woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The other woman was transported in critical condition to Maui Memorial Medical Center.

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A female driver was arguing with someone in an SUV moments before she drove it off a cliff Sunday in Puuiki, Maui, killing her female passenger and critically injuring herself, a witness said.

The white 2016 Ford Explorer was heading south on Hana Highway about 4 miles south of Hana town when the driver crashed into a low rock wall on the makai side of the highway and plunged about 200 feet, police and firefighters said.

The SUV landed on a large rock jutting out from the base of the cliff into the ocean.

Firefighters picked their way along the bottom of the cliff face and found two women inside, firefighters said. The driver, a 37-year-old Haiku woman, was pulled out of the driver’s-side door and flown to Maui Memorial Medical Center in critical condition. The passenger, a 37-year-old Haiku woman, was taken out of the back seat and died at the scene.

Maui Fire Capt. Gale Notestone said all the windows in the SUV were broken, the front and side air bags had deployed and firefighters couldn’t tell the vehicle’s make because it was so smashed.

Police said the crash happened at about 4:40 p.m., and did not release the identity of the victim.

Several Boy Scouts and their adult chaperones saw the SUV just before it drove off the cliff. Lawrence Lau, a chaperone with Troop 66 from Kahuku, was driving around a curve when he saw the vehicle parked in the middle of the narrow road with its hazard lights on. He stopped about 30 feet away and could see the driver arguing with someone who was pulling her hair, jerking the driver’s head to the right. Glare prevented him from seeing in the passenger side of the SUV.

“I could see the driver’s face,” he said by phone. “I could see two hands yanking on her hair.”

The driver grew angry and turned off her hazard lights, then stepped on the accelerator, passing his van on the driver’s side at about 40 mph.

“She was in a rage as she drove by,” he said.

A Boy Scout, 14, in his van watched the SUV as it passed and went over the cliff. Lau said the boy was OK after witnessing the incident.

Virgie Timbal, caretaker at the Saint Peter Mission Catholic Church, said she noticed the SUV stopped near her gate before the crash and saw a man talking with the women inside.

Timbal went inside, and about five minutes later she heard a loud scream and what sounded like thunder.

“The big, huge thunder that kind of shakes your place,” she said. “Nothing happened after that.”

She went out to her porch, and a man told her the road was closed because a vehicle had gone over the cliff.

Timbal went to the scene about 50 feet away and looked over.

“I seen the car way down,” she said. “Lucky it landed on a flat rock … and the water was not really rough.”