A man who was killed Sept. 6 on the Big Island in an accident involving a breakaway trailer carrying three outrigger canoes was a personal assistant to actor Nicolas Cage and before that to Warren Beatty.

Hawaii County police yesterday identified him as 49-year-old Michael Davison of California.
The North West Evening Mail of Barrow, England, reported in its online edition today that Davison, a native of Barrow, was vacationing in Hawaii after filming of Cage’s “The Sorceror’s Apprentice” was completed.
The accident occurred just before 9 a.m. on the final day of the Queen Liliuokalani Long Distance Canoe Races.
According to police, the trailer was being pulled by a truck heading north on Queen Kaahumanu Highway when it became dislodged, crossed the median and struck a multipurpose vehicle heading in the opposite direction.
One of the canoes crashed through the windshield of the SUV, striking the driver, Davison. He was taken to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.
Neither the driver of the truck, a 36-year-old man from Lahaina, nor his four passengers were injured.
Police have opened a negligent homicide investigation and ordered an autopsy.
They have not indicated whether speed or alcohol were factors in the crash.
Paddlers at the site said the canoes belonged to the Kahana Canoe Club of Maui.
The Evening Mail said Davison grew up in Croslands Park, Barrow, and moved to the United States in 1985.
Before being hired by Cage, he assisted Beatty through five movies, from “Dick Tracy” in 1990 to “Town and Country” in 2001 and accompanied Beatty and his wife Annette Bening on their Truth Squad bus tour in 2005.
Davison’s family in Barrow last heard from him the day before the accident when he sent an email update on his holiday.
He had been to some of the smaller Hawaiian Islands before and loved them, but had never been to the Big Island, said his sister-in-law Lynne Davison.
“He was hoping for an easy, tranquil, simple, somewhat relaxing, rainbow and star-gazing type of trip and was so excited to be getting a break,” she told the paper.