69-year-old woman who died in a Kahuku crash identified

KAHUKU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - A woman died following a crash on Oahu’s Kamehameha Highway in Kahuku Saturday morning.

The Office of the Medical Examiner identified the woman over the weekend as 69-year-old Aldana Soren-Kondo of Laie.

Honolulu police say the crash happened just after 9 a.m. It led to the complete closure of the highway near the entrance to Turtle Bay Resort.

A 20-year-old man was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet flatbed truck with an 18-year-old male passenger. They were heading south on Kamehameha Highway when they veered into oncoming traffic and crashed with a Nissan, HPD said.

Soren-Kondo was the lone occupant of the Nissan. Police say she was taken to a hospital in critical condition where she later died.

“The entire front-end was just off completely. There was just, a wreck,” a witness told Hawaii News Now. “I didn’t hear any screaming or anything, and I told the 9-1-1 operator that I didn’t want to see something that I couldn’t unsee cause I knew it was bad from the looks of it.”

She said a physician was among the bystanders who went to aid the woman moments after the crash.

Police say it doesn’t appear that speed or alcohol were factors in the crash. The two men in the truck were hospitalized in serious condition.

“I had actually walked past the two boys,” the witness said about the men in the flatbed. “The one boy was crying, and he just kept saying ‘I fell asleep, I fell asleep. I don’t know what happened, I fell asleep. We had a late night.’”

The witness added the driver was “guilt-ridden” and filled with remorse as EMS treated the woman.

This is the 49th traffic death of 2019 on Oahu roads. This time last year, there were 60 deaths on the roads.

Kamehameha Highway reopened around 12:30 p.m.