Cause of accident remains unknown
By DAILY PRESS STAFF
A 38-year-old Santa Monica business owner was killed in an early morning car crash on Sunday when the vehicle he was driving ran into a tree on Ocean Park Boulevard.
The Santa Monica Police Department on Monday identified the driver and sole occupant of the sport utility vehicle as Keoni Kai Lucas, a West Los Angeles resident who co-owned Puinsai Clothing Company, Ltd. with business partner Christian Kennel.
The crash occurred at approximately 1 a.m. in the 2600 block of Ocean Park Boulevard. Officers found that Lucas’ 2008 Infiniti FX-35 had crashed into a large tree located on the center median of the corridor, according to Lt. Alex Padilla of the SMPD.
The driver was ejected from the SUV and died at the scene.
The department’s Major Accident Reconstruction Team was on the scene investigating the accident and estimates that the vehicle was traveling at around 85 mph.
Padilla said on Tuesday that toxicology results are pending and will not be available for several weeks.
The Puinsai Clothing Company, located on the 2300 block of 14th Street, was founded in 1994, the idea spawned by Kennel while he was working at Duke’s Canoe Club on Waikiki Beach in 1993, according to the company’s Web site.
Kennel decided as an act of gratitude for the Waikiki Beach Boys accepting him into their family, he printed 100 shirts as a gift, each emblazoned with the group’s favorite term, “PUINSAI.”
“The Beach Boys wore them with pride and soon locals and visiting tourists alike were approaching Christian to see how they could get their own T-shirts,” according to the Web site.
Overwhelmed by the number of requests to produce shirts, Kennel enlisted the help of his co-worker, Lucas. The pair founded the company a year later.
The company honored their late co-founder’s memory, posting on the main page a photo of Lucas, sitting near the ocean and looking far off into the distance. Beside him is the phrase, “Spread the Aloha,” the company’s tagline.
The investigation of the accident is ongoing.
Jump hedline: Cause of accident still unknown
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 2, 2008. Read the original PDF.