Two women are dead and another injured after what police are calling a case of road rage on Mamalahoa Highway in Kona on the Big Island.

Hawai'i police are looking for a 41-year-old Hilo man believed to have been driving a Dodge pickup truck involved in the accident.

Police responded at 12:11 a.m. yesterday to reports of road rage on Mamalahoa Highway involving two vehicles traveling north toward Waimea.

Shortly after, police received a report that two vehicles had collided on the highway near the 16-mile marker in the Pu'uanahulu area.

Police found an "extensively damaged" small car off the mauka shoulder of the road and the Dodge pickup off the makai shoulder.

Two Hilo women, ages 26 and 35, who apparently had been ejected from the car, were found at the scene. Neither had any vital signs. They were pronounced dead at Kona Community Hospital at 7:15 a.m.

A third woman who also was in the small car was taken to North Hawai'i Community Hospital by an unknown motorist and treated for injuries from the accident, police said. She was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon, said Detective Mark Haggerty of the Kona Police Station.

The names of the women were not immediately released yesterday since family members had not been notified, Haggerty said.

He also said that police are not clear on the circumstances leading up to the accident, but based on phone calls police received shortly before the collision, it has been classified as a case of road rage.

The accident closed Mamalahoa Highway until about 8 a.m. yesterday.

Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call Haggerty at (808) 326-4646, ext. 277, or the nonemergency line at (808) 935-3311.

Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Big Island CrimeStoppers at (808) 961-8300 in Hilo and (808) 329-8181 in Kona.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.