Phone customers lose service for hours
About 200 Hawaiian Telcom customers across the islands experienced problems with their "voice-over-IP" phone service for about three hours or more Tuesday.
Of those customers, about 150 were businesses that saw phone service disrupted from about 9:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., although some customers experienced a further delay before service was restored, Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman Ann Nishida Fry said.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser was among those customers whose phone service was down from about 9:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
The problem was traced to a call-processing switch that also caused disruptions for some residential customers whose calls went through the same switch, Nishida Fry said.
Motorcycle accident kills Maui resident
A Maui man died Tuesday after the motorcycle he was riding struck a vehicle in Wailuku.
Joeffrey Bacay, 27, of Kahului was transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center’s emergency room, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Police said Bacay was traveling at 6:58 a.m. Tuesday toward Lahaina on Honoapiilani Highway and collided with a car making a left turn onto Kehalani Parkway.
The motorcycle broke apart and hit a second car headed toward Wailuku.
Police said the drivers of both cars — a 58-year-old female from Wailuku and a 43-year-old male from Kihei — were wearing their seat belts and that Bacay was not wearing a helmet.
Police said the cause of the accident remains under investigation.
Big Isle police notify public of phone scam
Hawaii County police are warning the public about a telephone scam from a caller claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House.
Police said a 65-year-old Hilo man was told he had won a car and millions of dollars and that all he needed to do to claim his prize was to purchase $1,000 in CVS gift cards and provide the card numbers from the back of the cards.
The recipient refused to follow those instructions and instead reported the scam to police.
Police caution the public not to give money or personal information to anyone who calls claiming the recipient has won a prize.
