UPDATE: Teen Identified in Mokulele Traffic Fatality

By Wendy Osher

Maui vehicles file photo by Wendy Osher.

Maui police have identified the male pedestrian killed in an afternoon traffic accident on the Mokulele Highway on Christmas Eve as 17-year-old Zachariah Samuel Aubut of Kihei.

Authorities say Aubut was walking on the Haleakala (east) side of the Mokulele Highway at about 12:53 p.m., when he attempted to run across the highway, and was struck by an oncoming vehicle.

Maui police say Aubut died at the scene.

According to police reports, the vehicle involved in the accident, a maroon 2004 Saturn Ion four-door sedan, was traveling north in the Kahului-bound lane of traffic when the accident occurred.  The vehicle was in the inner (fast) lane, about 0.6 miles north of the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Reserve road, near mile post six at the time of the accident.

The female driver in her early 20’s, suffered lacerations to her hand, leg and arm.  Her two-year-old daughter, who was withing the vehicle in a car seat, was uninjured.

The involvement of speed, drugs and alcohol has not been determined, as an investigation is still pending.

The incident is Maui County’s 20th traffic fatality this year compared to 11 at the same time last year.

The north-bound lanes of the Mokulele Highway were closed for three-and-a-half hours while an investigation was conducted.  The Kahului bound traffic was diverted onto North Kihei Road until the lanes were reopened at 4:23 p.m.