JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Waimanalo resident Bob Jasue looked over his property wall yesterday where two women were killed in a high-speed car crash late Saturday night at the intersection of Kalanianaole Highway and Inoaole Street in Waimanalo. The tire marks were still visible on the ground.

2 teens flee scene following crash that kills 2 isle women

Speed and alcohol were factors in the collision

Family and friends placed flowers at a crash site along Kalanianaole Highway in Waimanalo for two women who were killed over the weekend in a two-vehicle collision.

Police said speed and alcohol were factors in the Saturday night collision, bringing the death toll on Oahu's roadways to eight this year, compared with five at the same time last year.

According to police, two young men, both 17, in a white 1997 Ford Explorer, were traveling at a high rate of speed on Kalanianaole Highway shortly before 10 p.m.

Police said the driver of a gray 1990 Honda Accord was attempting to exit Inoaole Street and make a left turn onto Kalanianaole when she was broadsided by the Ford Explorer, which pushed the vehicle into a cement and tile wall.

The driver was identified as Michelle A. Benevedes, 39, of Waimanalo. Her passenger was identified as Racquel L. Akau, 38.

Benevedes and Akau were pinned inside the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said Benevedes was wearing a seat belt but do not believe Akau was wearing one.

The teens in the Explorer, police said, fled the scene of the accident, near Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School.

Some area residents said they saw the driver running down Inoaole Street and his passenger going off in another direction.

Police and some residents chased the driver before police apprehended him.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Two women were killed in a high-speed car crash late Saturday night at the intersection of Kalanianaole Highway and Inoaole Street in Waimanalo. A wrecked gray 1990 Honda Accord believed to have been involved in a fatal crash sat yesterday in a Waimanalo tow lot.

Some area residents said they heard sirens blaring before they heard a "loud boom."

John Bowes, retired firefighter of the Waimanalo Fire Station and an Inoaole Street resident, said he had just closed his garage door when he first heard the sirens and, soon after, a loud crash.

Bowes said he saw the driver run down the street with blood on his white shirt.

"He was all bloody. His eyes were big as hell. He was scared," he said.

Bowes said he saw another boy, believed to be the passenger, run in a separate direction.

Resident Shaun Kupahu, 22, who lives near Bowes, also heard the sound of sirens before the crash.

An officer who was at the scene last night said there was no chase and no reason to believe that there was.

Some residents who knew Benevedes said she had three children.

A man and two children -- who were identified as being related to Benevedes -- and residents placed red ginger and birds of paradise at the crash site yesterday. The man declined to comment.

"Once again, we see relatively young people killed on our highway, and this is what impaired driving does," said Carol McNamee, founder of the Hawaii chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "MADD extends its sympathies to the family members and friends of the two young women who were killed."

McNamee wanted to know where a 17-year-old driver obtained alcohol.

"We still need the cooperation of the community and establishments serving alcohol to make sure that young people do not have access to alcoholic beverages, which can result in tragic consequences," she said.