A deadly Easter weekend on the Big Island’s roads pushed the number of traffic fatalities in March alone to higher than the traffic death toll for the first three months of 2023.
A 26-year-old Volcano man, Sterling Stroud, was charged with first-degree negligent homicide and driving under the influence of an intoxicant for a two-vehicle collision late Friday night in Hilo that killed a motorcyclist, 26-year-old Jared Tellio-Flournoy of Hilo.
Officers responding to the 11:39 p.m. collision allege that Stroud was backing a 2002 Toyota pickup truck out of a driveway onto Kalanianaole Street and struck a 2007 Honda motorcycle ridden by Tellio-Flournoy.
A motorcycle helmet was located at the scene. However, police don’t know if Tellio-Flournoy was wearing it at the time of the crash.
Tellio-Flournoy was unresponsive at the scene and pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m. Saturday at Hilo Medical Center.
Stroud was released from custody after posting $10,250 bail, police said.
Almost exactly 12 hours later, a two-vehicle crash on Waikoloa Road killed two women in their 70s.
Officers responding to the 11:39 a.m. collision determined that a blue 2020 Kia Soul was heading mauka near the 3-mile marker when the car crossed the center line and struck a makai-bound silver 2024 Chevrolet Blazer head-on.
The driver of the Kia, 72-year-old Lynn Capell of Waimea, was taken to North Hawaii Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 3:17 p.m.
A 75-year-old man from Washington who was driving the Chevy, and the front seat passenger, a 77-year-old man from Alabama, were also taken to North Hawaii Community Hospital for further treatment.
The right rear passenger in the Blazer, 79-year-old Eugenia Taylor of Alabama, was unresponsive at the scene and pronounced dead at 5:30 p.m. at Kona Community Hospital.
A third vehicle, a silver 2023 Chevrolet Equinox, veered off the road onto lava rock to avoid the crash. The driver of that vehicle and three passengers were uninjured. The vehicle, however, was rendered inoperable.
At this time, police believe that speed and inattention are factors in the crash, and autopsies have been ordered on both women to determine the exact causes of death.
There are now 14 official traffic fatalities in 2024, compared to five at the same time last year. Seven of the 14 traffic deaths, half of 2024’s total, occurred in March.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.