One man is dead and another man injured following a utility boom truck rollover on the new Daniel K. Inouye Highway Friday afternoon in South Kohala.
One of the men was operating the vehicle headed westbound on the highway, also known as the new Saddle Road, when the truck apparently veered off the roadway and up an embankment before coming to a rest 50 feet from the highway, according to the Hawaii County Fire Department. The crash was reported at 11:42 a.m.
The truck apparently left the roadway about 1/4 mile from the highway’s terminus with Highway 190, also known as Mamalahoa Highway, according to the Hawaii County Police Department. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
The man killed, described as being in his 20s, was ejected from the vehicle, according to the fire department, which noted he suffered multiple trauma-type injuries to the head, neck and chest. The surviving man was extricated from the truck and transported via helicopter to North Hawaii Community Hospital in serious condition.
Police closed the mauka bound lane of the Daniel K. Inouye Highway shortly after the crash was reported while fire rescue personnel and Traffic Enforcement Unit investigators were on the scene. The highway reopened to both directions of travel around 3:30 p.m.