(Update) Infant Injured in Daniel K. Inouye Highway Crash Dies

Hawai‘i Island police report that the three-week-old female infant involved in the two-vehicle collision on Daniel K. Inouye Highway on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 23, 2025, has passed away.  The infant was pronounced deceased at 5:29 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27.

At 4:34 p.m., South Hilo patrol officers, along with personnel from the Hawai‘i Fire Department and Pōhakuloa Fire and Emergency Services, responded to a report of a head-on collision near the 25-mile marker. The collision left one woman dead and several people seriously injured.

Police determined that a 2022 Toyota pickup truck traveling east (Hilo-bound) overtook multiple vehicles and struck a westbound (Kona-bound) 2014 Subaru multipurpose vehicle head-on. The driver of the pickup truck, identified as 43-year-old Kimo Medeiros of Kurtistown, and five occupants of the Subaru were transported to Hilo Benioff Medical Center for treatment.

A sixth passenger, who was in the backseat of the Subaru, identified as 47-year-old Anina Masaichy of Kailua-Kona, was unresponsive at the scene and later pronounced dead at 7:53 p.m.

Autopsies have been ordered to determine the exact causes of deaths. Police are not releasing the infant’s name due to her age.  

The other Subaru occupants, a four-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and two adults, an 18-year-old female and a 51-year-old male, sustained serious injuries.  The infant and 4-year-old were medevaced to Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children on Oahu while the 17-year-old was flown to the Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu for further treatment.

Medeiros was initially arrested for:

• Suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant
• First-degree negligent homicide
• Three counts of first-degree negligent injury
• Two counts of second-degree negligent injury
• Reckless driving
• Driving without a license

He was transported to Hilo Benioff Medical Center for his injuries and then medevaced to Queen’s Medical Center where he remains in serious condition.

With the death of the baby girl, one count of first-degree negligent injury will be reclassified to one count of first-degree negligent homicide.

Speed, alcohol, and/or drugs are believed to be possible contributing factors in the crash.

The Area I Traffic Enforcement Unit is continuing the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact Officer Laurence Davis at (808) 961-2391 or via email at Laurence.Davis@hawaiipolice.gov. Tipsters may also call the department’s non-emergency line at (808) 935-3311.

This is the 20th traffic fatality of 2025 as compared to 25 traffic fatalities this same time last year.