Hilo driver, 23, dies after van crashes
A 23-year-old Hilo man died early Sunday morning after a single-vehicle crash on Kulana Road, a half-mile north of Hawaii Belt Road in Hilo.
Hawaii County police said Marvin Cascayan was driving a 1996 Honda passenger van south on Kulana Road when the vehicle went off the road and struck a tree shortly after midnight.
First responders found the vehicle hanging over the edge on an embankment. A tow truck was used to retrieve the vehicle, and Cascayan was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where he died a short time later.
A relative told Hawaii News Now that Cascayan was engaged to be married in the Philippines in the spring.
Police said speeding may have been a factor in the crash. It was not immediately known whether drugs or alcohol were involved.
The traffic fatality was the 23rd on the island this year, compared with 27 at the same time last year.
3 hurt as convertible, sports car collide
Three people were injured Sunday night in a two-car collision at the intersection of Dillingham Boulevard and Kalihi Street.
Fire Capt. Rick Karasaki said a man in his mid-30s and a woman in her early 20s were traveling west on Dillingham in a convertible when they collided with a Nissan sports car driven by a man in his early 20s.
A witness said the traffic signal had just turned green for traffic on Dillingham when the Nissan tried to turn left onto Kalihi Street and was hit by the convertible. The man in the convertible got out of the vehicle on his own but fell down near the sidewalk, the witness said.
All three were taken to a hospital in serious condition with non-life-threatening injuries, Emergency Medical Services said.
Hiker, 45, injured in fall on Manoa trail
Firefighters rescued a 45-year-old visitor Sunday after he slipped and injured his shoulder while hiking on the Manoa Falls Trail.
The man fell about 30 feet, landing in an area above the falls about 11:20 a.m., fire Capt. Rick Karasaki said. People on the trail who saw him fall were able to hike to him and call rescuers for help.
A Fire Department helicopter lowered firefighters to the hiker, who was flown to Manoa District Park, where paramedics were waiting.
The man, a tourist from the mainland, was taken to a hospital in serious condition, an Emergency Medical Service supervisor said.
Karasaki said the man had spent Saturday night on the trail with a partner and had planned to hike out Sunday when the accident occurred. When firefighters reached the man, he was complaining of pain in his right arm and shoulder and had a possible fracture.
Fires in Moiliili, Ewa Beach damage homes
Firefighters were busy Christmas morning with two fire calls shortly after midnight in Moiliili and Ewa Beach.
Callers began reporting heavy black smoke from an apartment building at 2114 Beretania St. at 12:28 a.m. Firefighters arrived to find flames in a first-floor unit of the two-story walk-up, fire Capt. Rick Karasaki said. They confined the blaze to the back bedroom of the apartment and brought it under control within 20 minutes. No one was hurt, but the fire caused about $9,000 in damage. A investigator was trying to determine the cause.
In Ewa Beach, firefighters were dispatched at 12:43 a.m. to a fire on Hanapouli Circle at the Sun Rise townhouses.
Someone had left a stove on with a pot of cooking oil on a burner, causing a fire that reached to a microwave and cabinets above.
Firefighters said a woman was able to put out the fire, but firefighters spent two hours clearing the home of smoke. The fire caused about $1,500 in damage.
Cook dies while transport ship is at sea
A 48-year-old ship’s cook died last week while aboard a chemical transport ship headed for Honolulu, police said.
The man was found unresponsive in his bunk on the Stolt Innovation at about 5:30 p.m. Dec. 20, police said.
When the ship docked Saturday morning, the man’s body was taken to the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office.
The death did not appear of a suspicious nature, police said. A statement on a cause of the death was not immediately released.
