Police and paramedics had a long day and night yesterday with a flurry of fatal, critical and serious traffic accidents.

Late last night Emergency Medical Services responded to a fatal head-on collision on Farrington Highway beside Ma'ili Beach Park on the Wai'anae Coast.

Bryan Cheplic, EMS spokesman, said around 10 p.m. a van and an automobile slammed into each other, killing the driver of the car and seriously injuring the 53-year-old woman driver of the van and a 55-year-old man who was her passenger. Both were taken to The Queen's Medical Center.

Around 9:40 p.m., ambulances were called to the 1600 block of Kapi'olani Boulevard where a man, approximately 40 years old, was struck by a car near the 24-Hour Fitness center, said Cheplic. The injured man was taken to Queen's in critical condition.

Cheplic said about 5 p.m. a woman pedestrian was taken to Queen's in critical condition after she was stuck by a vehicle on California Avenue in Wahiawa.

Two other men were taken to a hospital in serious condition yesterday after the trash truck they were driving ran off Makakilo Drive and overturned.

Shortly after 12:15 p.m., a 40-year-old man was driving a truck towing a large, portable rubbish container down Makakilo Drive with a 22-year-old passenger beside him. The man lost control of the truck on the Kapolei side of the H-1 Freeway overpass, swerved to avoid several cars, went off the road and ended up overturned on the grass, police said.

The man and his passenger were taken to Queen's in serious condition.

The crash was reminiscent of an accident that occurred in the same area two years ago.

On Nov. 26, 2004, one man was crushed to death and another seriously hurt when a runaway garbage truck hurtled down Makakilo Drive, plowed through the eastbound H-1 off-ramp, went over a 20-foot embankment, flipped on its side and slid to within 15 feet of the back wall of Chili's Bar & Grill in the Kapolei Shopping Center.

The 35,000-pound truck hit several vehicles in the parking lot.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com and Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.