Haleakala rangers and medics responded to a report of a motor vehicle off the road with possible fatalities just after 4:00 p.m. last Thursday afternoon. A four-door sedan was found 15 feet down in a gulch near mile 13 on Crater Road. The seat-belted driver of the vehicle and sole survivor of the accident was 60-year-old Bernard Ortolan of Sceaux, France. He was short-hauled by a Maui Fire Department helicopter to a landing zone at Hosmer Grove, where an ambulance picked him up and took him to a hospital. Although he sustained serious injuries, he was found conscious and had extricated himself from the vehicle by the time rangers reached the site of the accident. The other three occupants were declared dead at the scene by park medics. Anne Verger, 58, was the seat-belted front seat passenger and the spouse of the driver. Back seat passengers were not seat-belted and were identified as 65-year-old Rolande Andina from Paris, France, and 49-year-old Philippe Chigneau, also from Paris. Philippe is survived by his wife and two children, who were in a separate vehicle. It’s estimated that the accident occurred between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m., but there were no witnesses. The occupants of the vehicle were part of a larger tour group from France. The vehicle was headed down from the summit and interviews indicate that the driver fell asleep at the wheel and veered off the road. The vehicle left the roadway, went airborne across a gulch for 40 feet, struck its far side, then rolled back downward approximately 15 feet to the bottom of the gulch. Significant damage to the front end of the vehicle and the distance it was airborne indicate that the vehicle was traveling at a rate higher than the speed limit. Weather was not a factor in the accident.
