Philip Patrick Y.M. Lung had just quit his teaching job at a Waikiki English school for Japanese visitors and was driving down Mauna Kea on the Big Island this week when he got into an accident that killed him and a former student and injured his wife.

Lung, 34, of Mililani, and a 33-year-old woman from Japan were killed when Lung lost control of the red 2006 Jeep he was driving on a curve on Mauna Kea Access Road, the only road up and down Mauna Kea.

The Jeep ran off the gravel road shortly before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, went down a 20-foot embankment and overturned, Big Island police and fire officials said.

Police said speed was a factor.

The woman who died was riding in the back of the Jeep and was thrown out in the crash, said police, who were withholding her name pending notification of next of kin.

She was not wearing a seat belt, police said. Lung and his wife were wearing seat belts, police said.

Lung's wife, Ryoko Lung, 31, was taken to Hilo Medical Center with serious injuries, then transferred to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition, police said.

Lung had taught two, 12-week semesters at Central Pacific College on Kalakaua Avenue before resigning Friday, said teacher Munni Subramanian.

The woman killed in the crash had been one of Lung's students, Subramanian said.

Lung had told co-workers that he was quitting because he was on the verge of getting a job with the state, but he did not specify with what agency or in what area, Subramanian said.

Central Pacific College is on spring break this week, she said, but the death of one of only a handful of teachers and a student hit the small campus hard.

"It's very difficult," Subramanian said. "Very difficult."

The accident occurred as Lung was driving down from the 13,796-foot summit of Mauna Kea and was headed back toward the 9,000-foot Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station, about a half-mile northeast of John Burns Way.

The curve where the Jeep went out of control is at about the 9,500-foot elevation, said Bill Stormont, director of the Office of Mauna Kea Management at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, which has responsibility for the stewardship of leased lands on Mauna Kea.

The crash apparently was the first fatal accident in years on the popular Mauna Kea Access Road, which draws 100,000 sightseers each year to the visitor station, Stormont said.

"To my knowledge, there have not been any other fatal vehicle accidents," he said.

The curve where the Jeep crashed isn't any more difficult to maneuver than any of the other twisting portions of Mauna Kea Access road, Stormont said.

"The road has many turns in it," he said.

The deaths were the 11th and 12 traffic fatalities on the Big Island this year, compared with 11 at the same time last year.

Autopsies on the victims have been scheduled.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.