From Hawaii Police:
A 52-year-old Kailua-Kona man died Thursday (July 12) from injuries he sustained in a motor vehicle/bicycle crash on Akoni Pule Highway at the 19-mile-marker in the North Kohala District.
The bicyclist was identified as Jessie Taylor of a Kailua-Kona address.
Responding to a 1:18 p.m. call, North Kohala patrol officers determined that a 16-year-old girl from Hawi was operating a 2003 Nissan Frontier pickup truck and traveling east on Akoni Pule Highway when she apparently fell asleep, drifted off the right side of the highway and struck the bicyclist, who was on the shoulder of the road and also traveling east.
The driver of the truck and her mother, a 45-year-old Hawi woman, were not injured.
The bicyclist was taken to the Kona Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:10 p.m.
It is unknown at this time if speed, alcohol or drugs were involved.
Traffic Enforcement Unit officers have initiated a negligent homicide investigation and have ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
Police ask anyone with information about this crash to call Officer Larry Flowers at 326-4646, extension 229.
