Autopsy today on burned body

An autopsy will be conducted today on a body found inside the charred wreckage of a rental car that plunged off a slope above Yokohama Bay on Saturday.

Police listed the traffic death as Oahu's ninth this year.

A passer-by saw the driver and car parked on the mauka side of Farrington Highway near the Satellite Tracking Center Road. About 10 minutes later, at 7:26 p.m., the witness saw flames rising from below the oceanside cliff, police said.

The person died at the scene, and paramedics were unable to determine the identity or gender of the driver due to the extent of burns, traffic investigators said yesterday. Police said the car was a 2009 Nissan sedan.

Oahu had 10 traffic deaths at the same time last year.

2 hurt in crash near golf course

Traffic eastbound on Farrington Highway was rerouted near the Kapolei Golf Course after a single-vehicle accident caused serious injuries to two occupants, Honolulu police said.

The accident occurred close to 3:38 a.m. yesterday near the Grace Pacific Quarry.

Traffic was rerouted for less than an hour to the H-1 freeway in and out of Kapolei.

Nanakuli man, 18, accused in beating

An 18-year-old Nanakuli man has been charged in the beating of a 68-year-old woman last month in Waianae.

Nico Mclean of Akowai Road was charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary. He was being held on $25,000 bail.

Police said two men approached the woman as she stood in her carport at about 12:25 p.m. Jan. 26. One of the men asked whether Ryan was home. The next thing the woman remembers is waking up on a chair in her living room, covered in blood, police said.

Her dentures had been knocked out of her mouth.

Police expanded the search to four suspects and arrested Mclean Friday in Nanakuli.

Cyclist is injured in freeway crash

A man was in critical condition yesterday after crashing his motorcycle on the H-1 freeway near the University of Hawaii.

The man was possibly speeding in the Koko Head direction at about 3:30 p.m. when he tried to merge onto the offramp to University Avenue and lost control of the motorcycle, police said.

He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, police said.