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Maui firefighters raced to rescue severely injured women in two dramatic, near-simultaneous accidents involving cliffs on opposite sides of the island.
The first accident occurred in northwestern Maui, where a 23-year-old Kihei woman was found at the base of a steep cliff off Honoapiilani Highway, near mile maker 39.5 at 4:40 p.m. She had apparently fallen 60 feet in an area between the Nakalele Blowhole and the Olivine Pools, fire officials said. Firefighters arrived on scene at 5:05 p.m. and could hear her cries for help from the rocky coastline below the road but could not rappel down because of unsafe conditions, fire officials said.
Firefighters used the department’s backup helicopter to lower crews by rope to the shoreline and airlifted the woman to a landing zone set up on Honoapiilani Highway, where she was transferred to paramedics at 6:35 p.m. and taken by ambulance to Maui Memorial Medical Center in serious condition.
The county’s main medevac helicopter was involved in the rescue operations for the second crash on the east side of the island, below Hana Highway, where one woman died and another was injured when a sport utility vehicle was driven off a cliff at 4:42 p.m. in Puuiki.
Witnesses said a 37-year-old Haiku woman driving the SUV was arguing with someone in the SUV before she drove it off Hana Highway about 4 miles south of Hana.
The driver crashed into a rock wall on the makai side of the highway, and the car fell 200 feet, police said.
A 37-year-old female passenger from Haiku died at the scene, and the driver was taken in critical condition to the hospital.
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