Personal Injury Law

Trailer Hitch Failure Leads to Death of California Man in Kona on Sunday

By Wayne Parsons

Deadly automobile accidents continue to plague the Big Island roads. Our condolences go out to the family of a 49-year-old California man who was killed on Sunday in a freak accident on Queen Kaahumanu Highway near Makala Boulevard. The Star Bulletin reports the story in Monday's on-line edition.

A pickup truck driven by a 36-year-old Lahaina man was going in the opposite direction and a trailer hitch failed on the pickup allowing a trailer carrying three canoes to roll free. It crossed the centerline of Queen Kaahumanu Highway and collided with the California man's vehicle. One of the canoes broke free in the collision and crashed through the windshield resulting in the death of the California man.

Although we call these tragedies freak accidents, I see many of these deaths as preventable incidents and avoidable deaths. Certainly for the California man it is too late and his family will have to suffer through the tragedy. I am sure that the driver and passengers in the pickup truck are also in shock and devastated by what happened.

As time goes forward the question is what happened? The police have opened a negligent homicide investigation. At first blush the facts don't seem to support any criminal activity. The investigation will serve the purpose of finding out why the trailer broke loose. Was the latch improperly attached? Did the trailer hitch fail because it was defective? Why did the canoe crash through the windshield? Was the canoe properly attached to the trailer. Did a rope fail? The police investigation will get to the bottom of the what happened. That will take time as it should.

The collision happened at 8:48 a.m. and the trailer carrying the canoes is said to have "crossed the median" of Queen Kaahumanu Highway, where it hit the victim's oncoming 2009 Ford SUV. As you can see from this satellite image, Queen Kaahumanu Highway has a median strip and is wide in this area. That means the trailer had to navigate quite a distance to collide with the Ford SUV.

He was taken to Kona Community Hospital where he died at 9:45 a.m. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, police said.

The driver of the pickup hauling the trailer, a 36-year-old Lahaina man, and his passengers were not injured.

Full post as published by Honolulu Personal Injury Lawyer on September 07, 2009 (boomark / email).