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Truck struck concrete rail pillar head-on in deadly Ewa crash, police say

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                HFD at the scene of a fatal crash on Farrington Highway this morning near Kahi Mohala in Ewa.
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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

HFD at the scene of a fatal crash on Farrington Highway this morning near Kahi Mohala in Ewa.

Police reopened Farrington Highway in Ewa in both directions following a deadly single-vehicle crash near Kahi Mohala Behavioral Health.

Police said a white 2015 Chevrolet pickup truck occupied by two people was traveling westbound on the highway at a high rate of speed at about 2:45 a.m. when it veered off the roadway, drove over a curb and crashed head-on into one of the concrete pillars that supports the rail guideway.

Flames fully engulfed the vehicle upon impact. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, two burned bodies were found in the driver’s seat and the front passenger’s seat of the charred vehicle.

Positive identification of the occupants is pending, according to the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office.

Honolulu Fire spokesman Scot Seguirant said a dog found in the cab of the truck also died in the crash.

Police closed the highway between Old Fort Weaver Road and Kualakai Parkway for more than five hours.

Upon further investigation, the case has been transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division, according to Lt. James Slayter of the Traffic Division’s Vehicular Homicide Section.

It is unclear at this time why the case was transferred. Slayter declined to further comment on the crash.

Two years ago, three people died in a fiery crash after a vehicle slammed into a concrete pillar on the same stretch of road.

A 2010 Scion occupied by Ryan Tuazon, his best friend Joshua deGuzman and deGuzman’s girlfriend, Kassandra Kim was traveling westbound on the highway at at high rate of speed at about 8 p.m. on July 20, 2017 near Kahi Mohala when it lost control, flipped over and struck a pillar.

The vehicle caught fire upon impact and Tuazon, deGuzman and Kim, all age 27 of Ewa, were pronounced dead at the scene.

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