Homicide detectives, not traffic investigators, will be looking into the fiery crash of a pickup truck into a concrete rail pillar early Wednesday morning in Ewa — leaving two people dead.
The gender of the victims could not immediately be determined because their bodies were burned so badly in the early morning crash on Farrington Highway, and police opened a negligent homicide case.
A Criminal Investigation Division lieutenant said the investigation was likely transferred because of the condition of the bodies and other circumstances, although he was unfamiliar with the details of the case.
The cause of the crash that
occurred near Kahi Mohala
Behavioral Health remains under investigation. A dog also perished in the crash.
Police said a white 2015 Chevrolet pickup truck occupied by two people was traveling westbound on the highway at high speed at about 2:45 a.m. when it veered off the roadway, jumped a curb and crashed head-on into one of the concrete pillars supporting a section of guideway on the Honolulu rail line.
The truck was fully engulfed in flames upon impact.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, the burned bodies were found in the driver’s seat and the front passenger’s seat. Honolulu Fire spokesman Scot Seguirant said the dog was found in the cab of the truck.
Police shut down Farrington Highway in both directions between Old Fort Weaver Road and Kualakai Parkway for more than five hours after the crash.
Upon further investigation, the case was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division, according to Lt. James Slayter of the Traffic Division’s Vehicular Homicide Section. It is unclear why the case was transferred and Slayter declined to comment further.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office Wednesday could not estimate how long it would take to identify the two bodies found.
Three people died two years ago 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 a high rate of speed at about 8 p.m. on July 20, 2017, near Kahi Mohala. The driver lost control of the vehicle, which 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.