Visitor killed in Maui crash
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
A visitor from Oklahoma was killed and five people were injured yesterday in a head-on collision on Maui's Pi'ilani Highway near Alanui Ke Ali'i Street in Kihei.
The man killed was identified by Maui police as Jerry Killough, 68, of Oklahoma City.
Killough was driving a Ford sedan toward Makena when he was struck at 4:52 p.m. by a Ma'alaea-bound Nissan pickup truck that had crossed the center line, said Maui Traffic Enforcement Sgt. Stacey Yamashita.
A 4-month-old boy who was in the pickup truck suffered critical injuries and was medevaced to Honolulu, Yamashita said. The infant was in a child car seat and was not thrown from the truck, Yamashita said.
Killough's wife, two teenage grandchildren and a 22-year-old woman who was in the pickup truck were transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center with noncritical injuries, Yamashita said. The driver of the truck, a 22-year-old Wailuku man, also escaped serious injury.
"We're still in shock," Gregory Mellies of Oklahoma City said in a telephone interview of the death of his father-in-law.
The death marks Maui's 11th traffic fatality of the year and seventh in the past 37 days. Killough is the third visitor killed in a Maui traffic accident since May 19.
Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.