A sedan rests under a severed utility pole on Kilauea Avenue. The accident shut-down the street on the Puna side near . Palai Street. Photography by Baron Sekiya/Hawaii247.com

A car severed a utility pole and snapped it in half early Friday evening (July 10). A friend of the car’s operator said the driver had just picked-up a family member at the airport and was headed in the Puna bound lane of Kilauea Avenue when the car hydroplaned in the rain and hit the pole. Both the driver and passenger of the vehicle did not need medical attention. There were no other vehicles involved, the car suffered extensive damage to the front end. Police initially shut down one lane of traffic but closed both lanes so repair crews could work on the pole and remove the vehicle.

Later in the evening two-way traffic was opened with both lanes being routed past HELCO crews replacing the broken pole.

The car could not be removed until HELCO crews removed a utililty pole on and hanging over the vehicle.

Extensive damage to the front end of the car that severed a utility pole on Kilauea Avenue.