MEDIA RELEASE

Police have charged the driver of a pickup truck involved in a fatal vehicle-bicycle crash Friday (Sept. 27) in Puna.

Siaiku Aholeilei

At 8:30 a.m. Sunday, police charged 27-year-old Siaku L. Aholelei of Mountain View with first-degree negligent homicide and first-degree manslaughter.

He is being held at the Hilo police cellblock in lieu of $275,000 bail pending his initial court hearing scheduled for Monday (Sept. 30).

At 11:56 a.m. Friday, Aholelei was was traveling south at a high rate of speed on Highway 11 near the 8-mile marker in Keaau when he lost control, crossed the grassy median and struck a bicycle traveling north on the shoulder of the road.

The bicyclist, 66-year-old Cenon Tranquilino A. Visaya of Keaau, died at the scene.