Rapid response vehicle on Maui
Rapid response vehicle on Maui
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — A company that provides ambulance services on Maui has begun using a new rapid response vehicle.
American Medical Response operations manager Curt Morimoto said the 2014 specially equipped Ford Explorer is based in Maalaea and staffed by a paramedic 24 hours per day. The Hawaii Legislature approved funding for the vehicle.
West and South Maui Sen. Roz Baker says the unit will enhance emergency medical response time when ambulances based in Kihei and Lahaina are out of the region on calls.
She says the annual cost of the unit is about $600,000, about half the cost of a traditional ambulance.
She says the paramedic staffing the unit will provide advanced lifesaving services when fire department first responders are called to an emergency.
Search is halted for teen kayaker
HONOLULU (AP) — The Coast Guard has called off the search for an 18-year-old man who went missing while kayaking on the North Shore of Oahu.
The agency announced the decision late Sunday after looking more than 720 square miles of ocean for Dayne Ortiz. The only sign they found was a piece of the young man’s swimming trunks near where he was last seen.
Ortiz was last seen Saturday around 6 p.m. when his kayak overturned. His brother tried to swim out to right the kayak but was unable to reach him and came back to shore.
Ortiz was not wearing a life jacket.
Maui man killed
in moped crash
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — Police in Maui say a 36-year-old man has died after the moped he was riding collided with another vehicle.
The man was riding in Haiku late Saturday when he crossed a center line and crashed into a 2003 Audi sedan.
Authorities say he was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity is being held pending family notification.
The 43-year-old Haiku woman driving the Audi was not injured.
Her passengers, a 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl, were also uninjured.
Police say the crash happened around 10:38 p.m. as the moped driver was heading north on Kokomo Road.
Investigators are still trying to determine if speed, alcohol or drugs were factors.
The incident marks Maui’s 13th traffic-related fatality this year.
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