A 33-year-old male driver died and two of his passengers were in critical condition after they were involved in a two-car collision Tuesday on Maui’s Honoapiilani Highway.
The driver has been identified as Samuel Gusman of Wailuku.
The collision occurred shortly after 6:30 a.m. about 2 miles north of Maalaea Bay Place. Police said a black-and-red 1993 Honda Civic sedan driven by Gusman was traveling north on the highway when it crossed the centerline and collided with a red 2006 Toyota Highlander SUV that was southbound, said the Maui County Police Department in a news release.
Gusman was pronounced dead at the scene. The front-seat passenger and rear-seat passenger in the Honda were taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in critical condition.
Police said the Toyota driver, who was wearing a seat belt, sustained minor injuries and declined treatment.
Gusman and his passengers were not wearing seat belts.
Gusman’s death is Maui County’s 19th traffic-related fatality this year, the same number of traffic fatalities that occurred by the same time last year.
Police temporarily closed the highway between Maalaea Road and Ukumehame to investigate. Due to the road closure, the Department of Environmental Management, Solid Waste Division, rescheduled to today all trash pickups it missed in West Maui.
This is the second fatal accident in Maui in three days. On Saturday both Joshua Apo, 29, of Wailuku and Melissa Egbert, 33, of Lahaina died in a head-on collision.
Apo was being pursued by police on Honoapiilani Highway and was driving against traffic when he struck Egbert’s Scion sedan. Both were transported to Maui Memorial where they later died.
Egbert taught five courses as a lecturer in the English department at the University of Hawaii Maui College.
Apo had a criminal history of 16 convictions that included abuse of a family member, assault against a law enforcement officer, promoting a dangerous drug, resisting arrest and cruelty to animals.
On Oct. 9 he was released from Maui Community Correctional Center after he completed his sentence for prohibited acts relating to drug paraphernalia and promoting a detrimental drug in the third degree.
