Reginald "Reggie" Torres Jr., coach at Kahuku High & Intermediate School for the past 15 years and new varsity coach for the Red Raiders football team, has been named the Department of Education employee of the year. Torres is also an educational assistant III at the school.

This is the highest honor given a DOE employee.

Torres has coached numerous Kahuku teams to championship victories, including the 2006 wrestling team, both boys' and girls' divisions; the judo team; and the junior varsity football team. He also oversees the school's academic and behavioral intervention program, which links students in need with the programs that can help them achieve.

Torres will be the department's nominee for the Governor's Award for Distinguished State Service.

MAN, 25, KILLED IN HIGHWAY CRASH

The Big Island recorded its fifth traffic fatality in eight days yesterday when a 25-year-old man died at North Kohala Hospital after his pickup truck went off Akoni Pule Highway and crashed in Halawa Gulch, two to three miles east of Kapa'au (North Kohala).

North Kohala fire Capt. Marshall Luke said firefighters responded to a 4:15 a.m. alarm and found the man's pickup truck 120 feet below the highway at the bottom of the gulch. The man was ejected from the truck.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

Yesterday's death is the Big Island's 25th traffic fatality of the year. As of yesterday, 106 people have been killed on Hawai'i's roadways this year, including 62 on O'ahu, 10 on Maui and nine on Kaua'i.