16-year-old girl dies in Pali Highway crash: EMS

KAILUA, Hawaiʻi (KHON2) -- On Thursday morning, a crash claimed the life of a 16-year-old girl in Kailua. On June 18, around 6:04 a.m., the Honolulu Fire Department said they received a call about a car fire off the Pali Highway in the Kailua-bound lanes beyond the tunnels. According to police, the teen was driving at a high rate of speed, when she lost control and struck the right concrete barrier causing her vehicle to fly over the barrier and drop approximately 50 feet down into a ravine. The vehicle then caught on fire. The teen was thrown out of the vehicle. By 6:22 a.m., the fire was under control and extinguished by 6:26 a.m. Firefighters stabilized the vehicle and did not find anyone inside, officials said. HFD searched the surrounding area and found a woman unresponsive in the brush, just below the embankment. During a medical assessment, they said the victim was not showing any signs of life and performed a rope rescue to recover the woman from the brush. At this time, speed appears to be a contributing factor in this collision. It is unknown if drugs or alcohol is a contributing factor.  This is the 20th traffic fatality on Oahu this year, compared to 38 at the same time in 2025. The investigation is ongoing. Pali Highway Kailua-bound reopened after being closed for nearly seven hours. The fatal crash has renewed concerns about risky driving behaviors among young motorists. While Oʻahu traffic fatalities are down compared to last year, officials say too many young people continue to lose their lives on Hawaiʻi roads. On Hawaiʻi Island, 17 traffic fatalities have been recorded so far this year. Data shows nine of those deaths involved drivers or passengers between the ages of 17 and 24. Driving instructor Steven Wong says inexperience remains one of the biggest challenges facing teen drivers. "Young drivers are not as experienced," Wong said. He said many students enter driver's education programs with habits they have learned from adults. "A lot of the habits they've gotten are from whoever they're driving with," Wong said. "A lot of students say mom and dad told me to go five over the speed limit." Wong also points to distracted driving as a growing issue. "When I first started teaching in 2006, they didn't even have a chapter on distracted driving," he said. "Now it's one of the main topics." Victor Heung, an Island Insurance claims supervisor, said advances in vehicle technology can sometimes give drivers a false sense of confidence. "People become sometimes over reliant on the technology and that allows people to get a little bit more distracted," Heung said. He emphasized that basic safety habits remain critical. "Wearing your seatbelts, for instance, has a huge impact nationally over injury rates and fatality rates," he said. State Rep. Darius Kila, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, is urging parents to have conversations with their teen drivers. "If you have someone with a provisional license, have a discussion with them that it's not worth risking your life," Kila said. He also stressed that children often mirror the driving behaviors they see at home. "Your children are watching your actions and these behaviors are learned," he said. According to HPD statistics, there have been 18 fatal crashes, 17 critical traffic crashes, and more than 1,800 major crashes on Oʻahu so far this year. Police define major crashes as those resulting in death, injury, or more than $3,000 in property damage.