HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, was one of the people who stopped to help when his security detail spotted a vehicle upside down in a lava field Thursday while he was on his way to a Big Island event.
Before becoming governor, Green was an emergency room doctor in rural parts of the Big Island.
According to a post on the Hawaii Island Radio Scanner Community page on Facebook and confirmed by Green’s office, the governor and his security detail were en route to an opening ceremony for a new renewable energy project in Waikoloa when they witnessed the vehicle leave the highway, crash into the rugged lava field and come to rest on his roof.
The governor’s car pulled over and the governor and his detail joined several other bystanders in coming to the lone male occupant’s aid as Hawaii Fire Department and Hawaii Police department personnel made their way to the site near the 1-mile marker on Highway 191, according to the post.
HFD personnel extricated the trapped occupant from the vehicle and Green assisted the man to a waiting ambulance, where he was evaluated by medics and later transported to North Hawaii Community Hospital in serious but stable condition.
“He was upside down in a totally smashed up van,” Green told Hawaii News Now of the driver. "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.”
The man, who was wearing a seatbelt, had a few cuts and bruises and seemed to be OK, Green said.
Green later spoke at a blessing ceremony for Waikoloa Solar and Storage.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated with original reporting from Michael Tsai. (May 19, 2023)