A 31-year-old Makawao man died after crashing a pickup truck on Haleakala Highway early this morning, according to the Maui Police Department.

Police said that just before 4 a.m., the driver was involved in a single-vehicle crash near mile marker 4 while heading east on Haleakala Highway. The truck drifted onto the grass shoulder on his right and hit an irrigation canal, which caused the Ford pickup to fly into the air before landing on the canal’s east bank, MPD said.

The man was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, where he later died. The driver’s identity was withheld pending notification of family, MPD said.

Police said the driver was not wearing a seat belt, and that the truck’s airbags did not deploy. It remains unknown whether speed, alcohol, and drugs were factors, said MPD, which continues to investigate the crash.

This was Maui County’s 16th traffic fatality in 2023 compared with 17 at the same time last year, police said.