A tourist and a Kaua'i man were killed and three others injured yesterday in a three-vehicle accident that shut down Kuhio Highway on the Garden Island for nearly nine hours.

The deaths were the fourth and fifth so far this year on Kaua'i from traffic accidents.

Yesterday's accident occurred just after 9:30 a.m. on a section of the three-lane highway along the 6th green of the Wailua Golf Course, about three miles north of Lihu'e Airport.

According to county spokeswoman Beth Tokioka, the accident apparently happened when a south-bound motorcyclist lost control of her cycle and was struck by a north-bound "big rig" truck.

The driver of the truck then lost control and collided with an oncoming rental car, striking the car on the driver's side. Both the truck and the car then veered into a ditch mauka of the highway. The truck overturned, landing on its roof.

The drivers of the truck and the car were both pronounced dead at the scene. The motorcyclist and two passengers in the car — a woman and an infant — suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital.

Killed were truck driver Scott Aviguetero, 25, of Kaumakani and Wesley VanValkenburg, 30, of Union, Ill.

The occupants of the car were visitors to Kaua'i. The survivors and other family members are being assisted by the Kauai Visitors Bureau and Life's Bridges of Hawaii, a grief counseling service.

Police shut down the highway — one south-bound and two north-bound lanes — around 9:45 a.m. so crews could remove the vehicles and a Bobcat and other heavy equipment that had fallen off the truck and onto the highway.

Crews used an excavator and other equipment to remove the truck from the ditch.

The state Department of Transportation was called to inspect damage to the roadway and the guardrail, and approve the highway for public use. The Department of Health also was called to ensure that oil and fuel that spilled on the road and into the ditch was properly cleaned.

Those factors, along with the accident investigation and removal of vehicles and victims, all contributed to the delay in reopening the road, the county said.

South-bound traffic was rerouted along the Wailua emergency bypass road mauka of the freeway. North-bound traffic was routed along the shoulder of the highway adjacent to the golf course. The bypasses were opened within 45 minutes of the crash, the county said.

The closure slowed traffic for much of the day. The highway was reopened just before 6:30 p.m., police said.

According to the county, the re-routings added an extra half-hour to drive times in and out of the area by midday.

However, some drivers reported delays of up to an hour from the airport to the golf course.

A manager at the golf course described the gridlock as "awful."