The Maui News reports that five people died this morning following a two-car collision on Kula Highway, police said.

The accident occurred on Kula Highway at Noholoa Street around 6:36 a.m., said Lt. Wayne Ibarra.

The highway remains closed between Noholoa Street and Hoopalua Drive as police investigate the scene. Maui Police reopened the highway at 12:31 p.m. today.

A preliminary investigation showed that a 1998 Dodge four-door sedan with six occupants was traveling north toward Pukalani and crossed the center line and collided into a 2003 Suzuki sedan traveling in the opposite direction, Ibarra said.

Upon impact five passengers in the Dodge were ejected. Four of them, three males and one female died at the scene. A male later died while he was being transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center, Ibarra said.

He did not have details about the driver of the Dodge.

The three occupants of the Suzuki, a 46-year-old man, his front-seat passenger and wife, a 47-year-old woman, and a back-seat passenger, a 55-year-old woman, all of Pukalani were taken to the hospital in serious condition, he said.