GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM This was the vehicle involved in Tuesday night's fatal accident on Kunia Road, which killed a man and his two sons.

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Man, 2 sons killed
in Kunia were on
errand for car key

A car carrying Nestor Manzano
Sr. and his sons ran into a truck

Nestor Manzano Sr. and his two teenage sons left Tuesday night on a simple task to get a car key for a recently purchased used car -- but never returned to their Whitmore Village home.

Instead, relatives found out early the next morning from police that Manzano, 19-year-old Nestor Jr. and 16-year-old Edison were killed after the Chevrolet Cavalier they were in crashed into a farm truck crossing Kunia Road.

"My sister saw the blue car was not home yet and she was so worried," said Rose Malinay of her sister, Floredeliza Cudal Manzano, who is wife and mother to the victims. "Then police told us about the accident ... three people died on Kunia.

"She still cannot accept what happened."

Police said the 1991 two-door car broadsided the GMC flatbed truck as it was crossing in a plantation road at 9:02 p.m., 1 1/2 miles north of Anonui Street. The collision trapped the three men inside the vehicle and punctured a fuel tank on the truck.

Small puddles of fuel caught on fire, but the flames did not reach the vehicle, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Emmit Kane.

"At no time did those fires threaten the car or the victims," Kane said. "However, we did have to extricate the three males out of the car, and we worked with EMS (Emergency Medical Services) to stabilize them."

Paramedics transported the three men to the St. Francis-West Medical Center in critical condition. Two of the victims -- Nestor Sr. and Edison -- were pronounced dead at 10:06 p.m. Nestor Jr. was then taken to the Queen's Medical Center and died at 12:30 a.m. yesterday.

The 39-year-old male driver of the farm truck was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Police closed off Kunia Road in both directions between Anonui Street and Schofield's Lyman Gate for several hours as they conducted their investigation. Police said there were no airbags in the Cavalier, and it was not clear whether the men were wearing seat belts.

Police said the Cavalier may have been speeding, but Malinay said she was not sure who was driving Tuesday night.

"Eddie was turning 17 on March 6 ... he was so happy," she said. "He just got his driver's license last week Friday."

Edison was a junior at Leilehua High School in Wahiawa while his brother worked in the maintenance department at Del Monte. Nestor Sr. was a farmer at Helemano Plantation. The Manzanos and their six children came to Hawaii from the Philippines over the last two years, with Nestor Sr. coming over just last year.

The crash leaves behind mother and wife Floredeliza Manzano and four other children, ages 8 through 21.

"Everyone is still in shock, especially the youngest one," said Malinay.