3 die, 3 injured
after car hits
Likelike tunnelWitnesses say the SUV was
speeding when it lost control and
hit the Wilson Tunnel entrance
Three people were killed and another three sent to the hospital after the sport utility vehicle they were in struck the entrance of the Wilson Tunnel yesterday afternoon.
Police said the 2004 Chevy Blazer was a rental car.
"We are pretty sure they are visitors," said Sgt. Alan Vegas of the vehicular homicide section.
Witnesses told police the Blazer's driver was speeding in the town-bound lanes of Likelike Highway before it crashed at 3:20 p.m.
"There is a left-banking turn prior to entering the tunnel," Vegas said, "so if you're coming up real fast, it's not a good thing."
Vegas said witnesses told police that the Blazer was approaching the turn before the tunnel and lost control.
Vegas said the vehicle vaulted up the left concrete barrier along the highway, smashed into the lava rock wall of the tunnel and flipped over at least once, causing it to face Kaneohe when it finally came to rest.
"The vehicle came to rest about 20 feet inside the tunnel, and one male passenger was ejected," Vegas said. "When we got there, it didn't look like an SUV anymore."
Ambulance personnel pronounced the ejected passenger dead at the scene along with two other female victims who were inside the vehicle.
Fire crews used power tools to cut into the Blazer to allow paramedics access to the injured.
The three surviving passengers were taken to the Queen's Medical Center. The male driver and another female passenger were in guarded condition while another female was in critical condition last night.
The crash forced police to close the town-bound lanes of Likelike Highway all the way from Kahekili Highway. They rerouted traffic to the H-3 freeway.
Police reopened the highway about 9 p.m. after traffic investigators left the scene.