Driver dies after crash sends SUV off viaduct

A taxicab driver who appeared to be speeding in a van along the H-1 freeway viaduct near Honolulu Airport triggered a three-car crash Thursday night that sent an SUV plummeting 30 feet onto North Nimitz Highway, killing its driver, police said.

Police said excessive speed appeared to be a factor in the 9:10 p.m. collision, but drugs and alcohol did not appear to be involved.

Investigators said the taxi driver, a 65-year-old Waipahu man, with his 35-year-old male fare, also from Waipahu, was traveling at a “high rate of speed” when his van struck the rear of a vehicle being driven by a 26-year-old Honolulu woman. Her 10-month-old daughter and a 25-year-old man from California were passengers in her vehicle, police said.

After striking the woman’s vehicle, the taxi veered into an SUV, which then smashed into a guardrail before plunging off the viaduct and onto North Nimitz Highway, police said.

The driver of the SUV, a 48-year-old Aiea man, was pronounced dead at the scene. Friends on Friday identified him as Spencer Ueda, KHON reported.

The crash was Honolulu’s 54th traffic fatality of the year, compared with 47 at the same time last year.