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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 10:37 p.m., Monday, May 12, 2008

2 killed in Mother's Day tragedy on Kauai

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Paul and Laurie-Ann Goodrich with daughters Rylie, second from left, and McKenzie, far right.

Courtesy of Goodrich family

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Paul and Laurie-Ann Goodrich went for a drive on a beautiful Mother's Day morning on Kaua'i's north shore in their 1994 Porsche convertible with the top down.

They were approaching the hairpin turn on Ko'olau Road between Kilauea and Moloa'a when Paul Goodrich apparently lost control of the car. It went off the roadway, slid down a slope and crashed into a tree, killing the couple from Kilauea. Paul Goodrich was 56; his wife Laurie-Ann 47.

The couple is survived by two daughters, 12-year-old McKenzie and 9-year-old Rylie, 9, who were not in the car that day.

"Losing a parent is a tragedy in itself," the girls' uncle, Larry Hinkel told The Advertiser. "But you never expect to lose both parents at the same time.

"They're doing OK, they're resilient," said Hinkel, who is married to Laurie-Ann Goodrich's sister, Marybeth. "They're handling it much better than I would have expected. They have a large support group around them."

Paul and Laurie-Ann Goodrich both worked at Princeville Resort — he in banquet services and she in floral arrangements. Their love for Hawai'i was reflected in their home, Hinkel said.

"Their home is a museum of classic items and things Hawaiiana," Hinkel said. "Paul was an avid collector of things Hawaiian, vintage aloha shirts, furniture. He traded and collected. He had a lot of things from the 1940s and 1950s."

Paul Goodrich was also a collector of old Volkswagen vans and has several of them in different locations on the Mainland. The close-knit family used the vans to travel extensively around the country, Hinkel said.

"In 1994, they left California and drove to Georgia, where we were living, and left the van with us," Hinkel recalled. "The next year, they drove it from Georgia to New England. They came back to New England and drove it to the Great Lakes. Another time, they drove it from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Northwest."

Goodrich's van on Kaua'i was recognizable by its vanity plate: "O-Aloha."

Paul Goodrich moved from California to Kaua'i in the 1970s; Laurie-Ann migrated from Massachusetts. They married in October 1993.

Hinkel described the couple as "very, very family oriented."

Survivors also include Paul's adult children from a previous marriage, said Hinkel. Services are tentatively planned for Saturday in Hanalei, to be followed by a scattering of ashes at sea, Hinkel said.

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Sunday's deaths were Kaua'i's sixth and seventh fatalities of 2008, four more than on the same date last year.

As of yesterday, 39 people had died in traffic accidents this year in Hawai'i as compared to 54 by the same date in 2007.

The updated 2008 island-by-island breakdown as compiled by The Advertiser:

  • O'AHU (13) — Vehicle (6/pending one medical), pedestrian (4), motorcycle (2), moped (1).

  • BIG ISLAND (11) — Vehicle (8), motorcycle (2), pedestrian (1).

  • MAUI (8) — Vehicle (4), includes one for Moloka'i; motorcycle (3), pedestrian (1).

  • KAUA'I (7) — Vehicle (6 deaths/5 crashes), pedestrian (1).

    Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.