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Local Playwright Lisa Matsumoto Dead After Freeway Crash

By Minna Sugimoto

KALIHI (KHNL) - Family and friends are mourning the death of award-winning playwright Lisa Matsumoto. Investigators are trying to determine what caused her to drive the wrong way on the H-1 Freeway Friday morning.

Firefighters work to free a woman from her car, following a crash on the H-1 Freeway. Police say 43-year-old Lisa Matsumoto was driving east on the west-bound side, when her car slammed head-on into a vehicle driven by 35-year-old Cassie Olaivar.

"I was still sleeping and then got this late call," Gilbert Olaivar, crash victim's father, said. "Usually when I get late calls, I get kind of nervous."

Gilbert Olaivar says his heart sank when he learned his only daughter suffered serious head and leg injuries in the crash.

"That's my baby girl," he said. "I mean, I get grandchildren and everything. They're all my babies. But, I mean, when something like that happens to your family, it really hits you."

Matsumoto didn't survive. Police are trying to figure out if alcohol or drugs played a role.

"Unit one operator was a resident," Maj. Susan Dowsett, Honolulu Police Department, said. "So it would be presumed that she would have been familiar with the roads."

"There's no hard feelings because, what caused the accident, nobody knows," Gilbert Olaivar said.

He says he spotted something on the dashboard of his daughter's wrecked car that led him to believe someone was watching.

"There was a Bible there," he said. "I tried, I took it out. I wasn't too sure. Then, yeah, there was a Bible. So I think the Lord was really looking over her."

Police shut down the west-bound lanes of the H-1 while they investigated, but were able to clear the scene by 6 am, before the traffic rush.