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2 rescued after car goes over cliff

The Maui News

Maui firefighters rappelled 30 to 40 feet down a Kahakuloa cliffside Friday afternoon to reach a Seattle couple whose rental car had toppled over and only stopped falling after getting snagged by a tree, said Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto.

The 62-year-old man and his 67-year-old wife were uninjured, but they were stuck in the sedan for about an hour and 45 minutes before firefighters reached them and brought them topside, he said.

The trouble started when the couple’s sedan faced a school bus coming in the opposite direction on a single-lane portion of Kahekili Highway, he said. The sedan driver backed up, misjudged the embankment’s edge and backed over the precipice on the Wailuku side of Makamakaole Gulch.

The vehicle dropped at least 30 feet and came to rest on its side after a tree stopped it from falling another 20 feet to the cliff bottom, Taomoto said.

Emergency dispatchers were called at 2:58 p.m., and Wailuku firefighters were at the scene at 3:17 p.m. A Kahului station rescue crew also assisted.

Led by schoolchildren down a trail to the cliff bottom, firefighters were unable to reach the couple above them, Taomoto said. They reassured the couple to calm them and decided to rappel to them.

Firefighters rigged a rope system, made their way down to the car and got the occupants out — one by one — and back to the highway by 4:45 p.m., he said. The two were checked by medics.

As of Saturday afternoon, the sedan remained on the cliffside, Taomoto said. A tow truck crew was unable to retrieve it, and it will need to be raised by a crane, he added.

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