Probe continues in crash that killed 2

Authorities have yet to determine whether alcohol or speed were factors in Saturday morning’s fatal car collision along Monsignor Guerrero Road in Chalan Kiya, Saipan.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Eric F. David said yesterday that the Traffic Investigation Unit is still investigating the incident to determine the cause of the crash, which killed two persons.

David disclosed that a female known only as Norma reported the car collision to the DPS at about 1:50am. Officers and medics were immediately dispatched to scene and brought the victims to the Commonwealth Health Center.

David said that based on preliminary investigation by responding officers, a 1991 silver Hilux pickup being driven by the 16-year-old female victim was heading east when she lost control of the vehicle and swept into the westbound lane, colliding with an oncoming 2005 Toyota Matrix, driven by 36-year-old James O. Tanaka. The female victim was identified as Yumiko Yagi by the Marianas Variety.

David said both were rushed to the hospital, where Yagi, a student, was pronounced dead at 3am by Dr. James Stempiem. Tanaka was pronounced dead 15 minutes later.

Stempiem said both Yagi and Tanaka sustained massive head injuries and internal hemorrhage.

David said three other passengers on Yagi’s pick up were also transported to the hospital for treatment. Eighteen-year-old Buckman Leelan, 21-year-old Alphonsus Ngirmeriil, and a 17-year-old male were released with minor injuries. Two were sitting on the bed of the truck while the other was in front.

David said the two sitting on the pickup’s bed were thrown off from the vehicle as a result of the collision, landing some 25 to 35 feet away from the scene.

Yagi’s pickup sustained extensive damage on the front while Tanaka’s vehicle sustained extensive damage on the front left portion.

Traffic was shut down and vehicles heading west were directed to use another route to get to their destination.

A passerby who spoke on the condition anonymity described the scene as the “most horrible and terrifying” incident he has ever seen.

“I’ve seen several crashes in my lifetime, but this was just a horrible sight. It was terrifying to see the cars damaged the way they were,” he said.

Early Jan. 7, a man was killed and his passenger seriously injured after their vehicle ran off the road and crashed into a concrete wall and power pole in front of Toys 4-U along Middle Road in Gualo Rai.

The driver of the four-door sedan, a 33-year-old male, sustained a fractured skull and multiple fractured bones to the right side of his body while the 51-year-old male passenger sustained lacerations on both legs.

A couple of days earlier, a gardener died when his pickup truck hit a tree and rolled over a hill in Capitol Hill.