Kyle Masuda has spent almost 15 years on the back of a motorcycle and suffered his fair share of bumps and bruises, but the accident he experienced last month, and the injuries he sustained from it, have convinced him to
Kyle Masuda has spent almost 15 years on the back of a motorcycle and suffered his fair share of bumps and bruises, but the accident he experienced last month, and the injuries he sustained from it, have convinced him to never ride again.
Masuda, 37, of Lihu‘e, was heading west on Kaumuali‘i Highway approaching Halfway Bridge at around 1:20 p.m. on Oct. 27 when the pickup truck in front of him suddenly slowed in heavy traffic, causing the motorcycle and Masuda to flip over and land on the highway.
Almost two weeks later, he remains hospitalized at Wilcox Memorial Hospital with a broken right hip, fractured left rib, broken right elbow, broken right thumb and serious road rash on his back. Had he not been wearing a helmet, optional for adults under Hawai‘i law, Masuda could be dead.
“On a bike, anything can happen,” he said yesterday in a phone interview from his hospital room, where he awaits hip surgery, according to his wife Eleanor. “Sooner or later, you’re gonna crash, and without a helmet, you’re gonna die.”
The increasing number of motorcycles, mopeds and other “street bikes” traveling Kaua‘i highways in recent months and years is creating safety issues for riders and passengers of vehicles with both two and four wheels.
The day prior to Masuda’s accident, a 42-year-old woman riding a motorcycle on Kaumuali‘i Highway in Lihu‘e rear-ended a pickup truck and sustained minor injuries. Also on Oct. 28, a 17-year-old Maui boy died after a collision involving his small motorbike, according to reports.
Earlier this year, extraordinarily high oil prices made two-wheel transportation an enticing, affordable alternative to traditional island cars like sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks.
“We had an increase in people looking at motorcycles when the (gas) prices went over $4 (per gallon),” Garden Island Motorsports general manager Ron Victorino said earlier this month, noting he had sold roughly 20 motorbikes since June. “What we noticed was people coming in for transportation for short runs — to the market or around town — so they don’t have to take their larger vehicles on short drives.”
However, with gas prices returning to Earth and the economy slumping in recent months, other local motorcycle dealers said their sales numbers have not significantly increased from drivers abandoning their gas guzzlers for street bikes, a claim supported by Department of Motor Vehicles records.
Wayne de los Santos, an examiner who administers the DMV’s motorcycle road tests, said the number of tests has not dramatically changed from 155 taken in 2004 to 125 taken through the first nine-plus months of 2008.
Road test data, and even vehicle registration numbers, do not necessarily paint the full picture when it comes to determining the number of motorbikes on our roads because the smallest of the two-wheel vehicles, mopeds with 50-cubic-centimeter engines, are not required to be registered and insured like full-size motorcycles and passenger vehicles.
Data provided by Department of Transportation engineer Shawn Hiraoka shows the number of major vehicle accidents — those incidents that featured fatalities, injuries or total property damage exceeding $3,000 — involving motorcycles has gone up dramatically on Kaua‘i in the last decade.
The number of major vehicle accidents on Kaua‘i has more than doubled in that time, skyrocketing from a low of 12 in 1998 to a high of 27 in 2007. Data for 2008 is not yet available.
Also, the percentage of major vehicle accidents involving motorcycles has also dramatically increased, from 2.41 percent in 1998 to 4.46 percent in 2007, which means the increases are not simply a function of more total accidents, but that motorbikes are more frequently involved.
Some believe an increase in the number of motorbikes on the road, while dangerous in the short term, could eventually become much safer as drivers adjust to the new identity of road users.
“I think having more motorcycles and motorscooters on the road would make the other drivers more aware,” Victorino said. “People will become more aware the more they gain popularity. They’ll get more accustomed to seeing them and have an open eye for it.”
One local group hoping to speed up that learning curve by teaching safe motorcycle operation techniques is Kaua‘i Community College’s Office of Continuing Education and Training.
Training Coordinator Colleen Kaiminaauao said this week KCC is working to bring to the Garden Isle the Hawai‘i Motorcycle Safety Education Program, already offered at O‘ahu’s Leeward Community College, another University of Hawai‘i school.
The program is DOT-approved and will lead to the issuance of a licensing waiver. Kaiminaauao said the program provides a motorcycle for each participant during training and prior riding experience is not required.
“We have had incredible support from motorcycle companies on the island. They’re basically calling me and telling me, ‘anything we can do to help to get this program here, we’ll do it,’” Kaiminaauao said. “Hopefully, we’ll get one going soon.”
For more information on the University of Hawai‘i’s Motorcycle Safety Education Program, visit www.leeward.hawaii.edu/ocewd/Programs/MotorcycleSafe/MotorcycleSafe.htm
To learn more, go to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Web site at www.msf-usa.org
• Michael Levine, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or via e-mail at mlevine@kauaipubco.com
