Fall hurts boy on hike in off-limits area
A 17-year-old visitor was injured while apparently hiking illegally in the Sacred Falls area, prompting the Department of Land and Natural Resources to issue a reminder that the area is still off-limits due to hazardous conditions.
The boy was hiking with an 18-year-old woman, also identified as a visitor, and a 17-year-old local male when he apparently fell some 20 feet off the trail.
Honolulu firefighters helped the three out of the valley. The boy who fell was taken to an area hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Sacred Falls State Park has been closed to the public since Mother’s Day 1999, when eight people were killed during a rockfall.
Man dies of injuries from mo-ped crash
A 63-year-old Ewa Beach man critically injured in a mo-ped accident Saturday in Kalaeloa died Wednesday morning at the Queen’s Medical Center.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as Sidney Ribuca. He died of head injuries suffered in the crash, the Medical Examiner’s Office found.
Police said Ribuca’s mo-ped crashed into a concrete barrier after he lost control while riding south on Coral Sea Road near San Jacinto Road.
Bail reduced in prosecution-hindering case
A state judge has reduced the bail for one of two defendants charged in connection with the hit-and-run death earlier this month of a man on Kahekili Highway.
Matthew Fragas died June 2 after a vehicle struck him on the highway near Ahuimanu Place.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging Mark K. Salangdron with being the driver of the vehicle that struck Fragas and leaving the scene of the fatal collision. Salangdron also is charged with extortion for allegedly trying to prevent a witness from reporting the incident to police.
The indictment also charges Elijah Kawai-Aweau with hindering prosecution.
Circuit Judge Richard Perkins kept Salangdron’s bail at $250,000 but reduced the bail for Kawai-Aweau to $50,000 from $150,000, noting that the hindering prosecution charge is a class C felony punishable by a maximum five years in prison and $10,000 fine.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Firefighters put out fourth blaze in a week
Firefighters extinguished a small brush fire that broke out Wednesday night on a hill above Lumahai River, the fourth brush fire on Kauai since Sunday.
The fire was reported about 10:15 p.m. in an area adjacent to one that burned over the weekend. It was deemed under control by 1:10 a.m. and extinguished by 2:20 a.m.
While the cause of the Wednesday fire remains under investigation, fire officials are urging residents to be cautious.
Firefighters also put out three brush fires Monday:
» A 5-acre fire that started Sunday on a bluff overlooking Lumahai Bay.
» An agricultural burn that got out of control, burning less than a quarter-acre in Hanapepe Valley.
» A 2,250-square-foot fire in Kokee.
