DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
A police office directed traffic at a roadblock yesterday on Kalanianaole Highway after a fatal car crash. Both sides of the road near the Women's Correctional Center were closed.
Speed was a factor in a two-vehicle collision last night that left one teenage girl dead and a man seriously injured on Kalanianaole Highway near the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua before 9:42 p.m. Kaneohe girl dies
in 2-car crashStar-Bulletin staff and news services
The names of the victims were not released as investigation continued this morning. Police said the victims were not wearing seat belts.
The girl, 15, of Kaneohe, was the passenger in a four-door sedan speeding on the grass median as it passed other vehicles on the highway, police said. Witnesses reported that the sedan was traveling at about 70 mph.
The sedan slid sideways into oncoming traffic and collided with a van, police said. The impact broke the sedan into two pieces and threw both victims onto the roadway.
The girl was pronounced dead at the scene. The sedan driver, a 22-year-old Waimanalo man, was taken to Queen's Medical Center in critical condition. He has improved to guarded condition this morning.
The driver of the van, a 55-year-old Kailua man, was not injured. Police said he was wearing a seat belt, and an airbag in the van deployed after the collision.
This was the first fatal or critical traffic accident on Oahu since the start of the Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign. The accident was the 27th traffic fatality of the year on Oahu.
In 45 traffic fatalities on Oahu last year, only 16 of the victims were wearing seat belts, said Maj. Robert Prasser, Honolulu Police Department Traffic Division.
