A 16-year-old girl killed in a scooter crash on an H-3 freeway onramp in Kaneohe was identified Friday as Nicolette Vares of Kapolei.
The medical examiner’s office said Vares died of blunt force injuries to her torso, and classified her death as an accident.
Vares died Thursday at Queen’s Medical Center, where she was taken after she lost control of the green Vespa scooter she was driving and crashed into a guardrail on the Likelike Highway onramp to the H-3 freeway. She was wearing a helmet.
The scooter was legal to operate on the freeway because it has a larger motor than a moped, police said.
Speed and inexperience may have been factors in the crash, which happened at about 8:30 a.m., said Traffic Division Lt. Robert Towne.
The onramp has a 25 mph speed limit and a sharp bend that "catches you off guard," he said.
Towne said Vares’ father was following her on his motorcycle and witnessed the crash.
The onramp was the scene of another fatal crash seven months ago.
On Aug. 25, Long Hyuhn, 47, crashed his motorcycle and died. Hyuhn, an officer with the U.S. Department of Defense and a member of the Iron Circle Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club, was not wearing a helmet. Initial reports said speed was a factor.
According to the state Department of Transportation, there were two other incidents on the onramp since 2009. The driver of a motorcycle crashed in 2009, and the driver of a vehicle crashed in 2010. Both incidents were not fatal.
Vares was the third motorcycle fatality on Oahu in the past 18 months.
