Governor jumps into action, renders aid to driver after spotting crash on Hawaii Island

KONA (HawaiiNewsNow) - Gov. Josh Green sprang into action and rendered aid to a driver after witnessing a vehicle crash on Hawaii Island on Thursday morning.

The crash happened on Waikoloa Road, between Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Waikoloa Village.

Photos sent to Hawaii News Now showed Green and several other Good Samaritans at the scene of an overturned vehicle off the roadway.

Green, who is also a physician, was on his way to a blessing ceremony for Waikoloa Solar and Storage, and his security detail spotted the vehicle.

They helped extricate the driver when first responders arrived minutes later.

“Thank goodness he was seat belted in,” Gov. Green said. “He was upside down in a totally smashed up van. It appears he launched about 50 to 60 feet into the air and into the gulch, so his car was destroyed and we were able to get him out through the front windshield, removed a lot of rock and seven or eight citizens with me, we just pulled this guy out.”

Gov. Green says the man had a few cuts and bruises and appeared to be neurologically intact.

He also adds this is not the first time he’s responded to the scene of a car crash.

“I was part of an incident like this in the southern part of the Big Island once where a woman had fallen asleep on her medications and her car lit on fire and we just pulled her out,” Gov. Green explained. “She lived, but the car blew up and then another incident on Oahu a couple years ago where there was a terrible collision and a guy had a bad laceration.”

Once the victim in Thursday’s crash was transported via ambulance, Gov. Green later spoke at the Waikoloa Solar and Storage event.

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