Want to drive up Maunakea or down into Waipio Valley?
Then soon you might need to have the right set of wheels.
A bill moving through the state Legislature would require a low-range, four-wheel-drive vehicle to be used when entering these areas, two of Hawaii Island’s most breathtaking and popular sites. All-wheel-drive vehicles would not be authorized.
Rep. Mark Nakashima, who introduced House Bill 1767, said the steep access roads for both locations are not suitable for two-wheel drive cars, which can break down or, worse, lose their brakes.
The situation is becoming more dangerous as they attract more visitors, he said.
Nakashima, D-Hamakua, said he doesn’t expect the bill to be a problem for Waipio residents since they already are properly equipped for the trek.
“Most of the people who live and work in Waipio know the customs and practices,” he said. “They have four-wheel drive.”
The bill, which is up for a floor vote in the House after clearing three committees, is being welcomed by the University of Hawaii and its agencies that oversee Maunakea.
On the mountain, the law would apply to the unpaved road above Hale Pohaku.
“Two-wheel-drive vehicles don’t have the low gearing needed for the driver to keep a safe speed without using excessive brakes,” said Office of Maunakea Management Chief Ranger Scotty Paiva in written testimony. “… We are very lucky for not having more accidents due to brake failure.”
He said two-wheel-drive vehicles also have less traction on the soft cinder and cause hazards for other vehicles.
UH has authority to require the use of four-wheel-drive vehicles under administrative rules, but that process has been delayed several years.
Nakashima said the bill would allow any law enforcement officer to issue a ticket, rather than the matter being sent to the state Board of Land and Natural Resources for review. Violators would face a fine of $250.
Emergency vehicles would be exempt.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
One of the few times I agree with a Democrat! Good law, I hope it gets passed.
So you agree with the current cluster fu$& going on the the White House, House and Senate with the knuckle draggers in charge?
I don’t want to get personal, but in general I despise Democrats. They don’t do anything right. This is one exception. I drove to the summit of Mauna Kea for 10 years and I know how dangerous that road can be if you don’t know what you are doing.
Oh yes. And the orange haired baboons party is doing such a wonderful job.
Just wonderful.
Should be a clause in bill that requires a vagina is not behind the wheel as well….
Quite frankly $hit for brains a$$wipe ignorant pieces of pure human $hit the likes of you do not deserve to live.
It’s a shame that the slut whose vagina you were squirted out of did not abort you 2 hours before.
dude, lighten up
Not at all.
Only a total $hitfir brains a$$wipe piece of pure $hit would say what the knuckle dragging Neanderthal Leroy said.
Sorry. It’s not funny.
Hahahaha…what’s funny is a butt hurt soy boy gettin his panties all bunched up. Someone is still upset over riding the short bus as a child.
Whats disgusting is a $hithole scumbag piece of human $hit who degrades women, makes further degrading references to homosexual people and now makes a joke referencing mentally retarded people.
And yet, I know you hold your bible up high and proclaim your love and faith to a “god” you think really loves you!
There is nothing really funny when one realizes $hithole useless idiots like you exist.
Broken record troll living in mommy’s basement. This is what happens when autistic people are allowed on the internet. Haha, lil jacky gets his soy boy feelings hurted too easy. Kisses for you n mommy….
Just pointing out the truth behind a dying breed of $hit for brains idiots named LEROY!
Now you desire to ridicule autistic people!
You must be one of Trumps biggest supporters!
Have fun with your mouth wrapped around his a$$hole eating the $hit that drools out Leroy!
You sure are a great a$$sucker!
PS. I am kind of concerned about you in a way.
Well not you per se, but what has been demonstrated by $hit for brains a$$wipes like you might do.
Do you by any chance have an AR 15?
Live near a school?
Please I beg you. If you feel like shooting up a school please do everyone a favor and just put a bullet into your pea sized brain and no one else.
Please??
Go back to secretly touching kids you Buffon
Again we see the desperation and deflection of a the $hit for brains a$$wipe piece of pure human $hit babbling his inane bull$hit. Like grasping for straws.
I think you might somehow be related to the guy who shot up those 17 people in Florida. You think and say the same racist bigoted brain dead bull$hit that he did.
I am a very stable person. I don’t have to come into news sites and make posts that denegrate women. Make fun of mentally retarded kids. Make derogatory comments about homosexuals. Make comments that are shameful about autistic children.
No Leroy. I worry about idiot scum sucking pig pukes of pure $hit like you.
And you sure do love to bring up insulting and degrading stuff about women, children and the handicapped.
I would say a scum sucking pig puke piece of pure human $hit like you Leroy is more likely to also abuse children and women and beat up the handicapped.
So Leroy. Make the next post that shows just what kind of pure piece of human $hit it is you are.
It’s too bad your mother let all those men deposit their sperm on her feet and that one damn fly had to get in there to create what should have been a violently aborted fetus.
But no. That did not happen
Unfortunately.
Yeah……your babbling comes across as completely stable…coo coo, coo coo
Call it what you like you want you worthless idiot Leroy.
But at least I have not denegrated huge swaths of humans as your $hit for brains stupidity and ignorance makes you do
No. The only thing I have made truthful and specific comments about is what a total piece of useless worthless human $hit it is you are and whatever slut whore and unknown male species it is that made a piece of pure $hit scum like you.
You were the weird kid who ate the glue sticks in art class weren’t you?
Not at all.
I was one of the kids who studied hard. Learned things. Applied myself.
And most importantly learned how to deal with $hit head a$$wipe stupid ignorant pieces of pure human $hit like you who I would kick in the balls daily as you bullied and tormented the girls or kids that were slower learners or of mixed race or may have seemed to be “sissy” as a spineless limp dicked prick like you would call them.
Remember that day when you found yourself hanging from the basketball hoop by your tighty whites after you tried to bully your way thru school?
That was me who put you there.
And I will always put a scum sucking low life $hit head idiot like you there each and every time. As I have done on this entire thread.
I am quite shocked however.
You have not insulted any group of humans in your last few posts.
No derogatory comments about women. Or homosexuals. Or poking fun at mentally retarded people. Or autistic kids.
Have I maybe gotten thru that thick beer soaked pea size piece of dog $hit you call your brain??!
Please, a moment of silence for the great social justice warrior Hilo jack off….
Haha, you’re such a hypocrite… that’s a sign of a double digit IQ. Quarenteed you’re a closet trump supporter…usually the most outspoken have the deepest secrets…what are your secrets jacky?
Again we see the depravity, delusion and deflection of the $hit for brains a$$wipe useless piece of human $hit that dhiukd have been sucked out of whatever whore slut and male sperm that a simple flea allowed to be created.
As for who is a hypocrite, all a simple minded $hithead like you has to do is look in the mirror.
Assuming your fat ugly incest bred face does not break it.
I am wondering. For someone like you Leroy to be as totally void of intellect as you clearly are but I am wondering if your sister is also your mother and maybe your father is your brother?
Hilo jack…itches butt, sniffs fingers…why do my fingers smell like mommy?
Oh my such intellect you employ.
At least my mother was not a whore slut like yours is.
Tell me do you still open your beers using her one remaining tooth??
Or did you finally smash it out of her mouth cause she would not let you take any more of her beer?
What. No women to insult? No mentally retarded kids to pick on? No autistic children you can make fun of?
Hmmmm. You must be running really low on your empty intellect bucket!
Don’t ask me why your fingers smell like your moms overused butt hole.
That’s between you and her.
PS Can’t be a Trump supporter. Those who support the orange haired $hithole baboon are always proud to show their support.
I on the other hand hope day after day to just seeing the orange haired baboon on CNN and then suddenly his head just explodes into a huge blob of red.
That would be a great justifiable use of an AR 15.
Hopefully we see Pence’s, Ryan’s and Mcconnells head burst open too.
That would be the best day yet!
Wow…the downward spiral of retardation continues..now u are making threats against the president. Don’t try n delete, I already took a screen shot and will be forwarding it to the Hawaii branch of FBI..not to hard to track IP addresses. Haha, you really effed up now jacky…toodles
LOL. good one Leroy!!
If you had anything but a piece of dried up dog $hit as your clear non functioning brain you would realize that I never made any threat against anybody including an orange haired $hithole piece of total waste of human flesh you call your potus.
But as I said you have a piece of dried up dog $hit you as your non functioning brain.
Now if only the useless FBI did anything to stop your relative in Florida, 17 beautiful people would still be alive.
You can still just put the barrel of a gun into your fat wife always open mouth and pull the trigger too Leroy.
That would be a good step for the world!
Didn’t the FBI pick you up for child abuse st the B&B here s few years ago?
You got out already?
You fucked up bro…
LOL – Come get me!
Expressing a wish is not a threat!
Maybe to $hit for brains idiots like you it is, but to me its the 1st Amendment!
Too bad you are so damn stupid you don’t know the difference
Since you think making fun of mentally retarded children, denigrating women, disparaging homosexuals, making fun of autistic children and having the brain the equivalent of a piece of dried up dog $hit, you are more or less the same as the orange haired baboon potus.
What I someday hope happens to him, I think the same for you is in order.
Its befitting!
How many times you going to say “toodles?”
Did you ever find out why your entire fist smells like your slut whore mothers prolapsed butt hole?
I use a Russian IP address!
Haha, ole Hilo jacky off is back…you are so original with ur trolling…butt hurt soy boy alert
Not “butt hurt” at all.
Your cave man ideology is something you should be embarrassed and “butt hurt” about.
I just love pointing out sheer $hit for brains idiots – who quite frankly, just have to be pushed aside and off the cliff.
As for who trolls who, your original comment wins hands down.
Its too bad you’re too damn stupid to know that.
I’ll bet that if any of these politicians bothered to look through the existing vehicle code, they would find that current statute(s) exist that cover these situations. But then, to a politician there are never enough laws and regulations. And a largely ignorant population just keeps going along with the program.
By all means point us to those statutes, will you?
You sound like a smart boy, Go look’em up yourself, not difficult.
In other words, you pulled your comment out of your okole.
The steepest and most dangerous part of Mauna Kea is the Saddle Road to 9000 foot part of the drive, not the area above 9000 ft.
But… whatever.
Can it be that you’ve never been on the upper road? I’ve been on it more times than I can count, and just about every time I am, I see a person (usually but not always in a likely rented 2WD car) doing something stupid. Of course the bottom part is steep and yes, it’s dangerous too, for a driver who doesn’t know how to brake with the transmission. But the upper road is far far more dangerous.
And yes, I know that deaths occur on both roads.
I just retired from 13 years at one of the observatories… so yes… I’ve been up there. At least once or twice
All right. I’ll accept that you know what you’re talking about, then. But do you really mean literally what you wrote? I’m happy to shift to “let’s talk about it” mode. I assume you’ve been on the upper road in the late afternoon.
I agree that both sections are dangerous and should always use 4-wheel. I’ve just always found that driving down from the 9000 ft to Saddle, on those big tight curves – to be the most dangerous.
Above 9000 most is dirt, which tends to give better traction – though there are still the people who go too fast and lock their brakes in which case the dirt just becomes a track, right over the edge.
Years ago, as a tourist, we took a rental convertable up to 9000 ft to the visitors center. There was just a woman there who popped out of the center and said “Rental Car Police”. We were shocked and scared… then she laughed and said “just kidding, I’m the chef for the astronomers”.
But we always see convertables at the top – very dangerous.
However, a lot of the time the problem is more of a seal popping and the draining of fluids – which can happen in any vehicle.
Yes, I agree. I’ve heard stories from observatory staff (and others) about people who rent Jeeps or 4Runners and treat the “4WD” thing as some kind of magic when, in fact, some of them don’t understand they have to switch to it and also use low range when appropriate. And then you see the Versas making a run at it.
And who will be the gatekeeper? That’s an issue. You can put all the signs you want above Hale Pohaku, but if there’s no one there to say “No way,” it won’t matter much.
Look, don’t you think we should trade some insults now? Probably our exchange is boring people.
Ok… look here shithead
On a related story – a couple of months ago we took our 4-wheel into Waipio valley. Halfway down we had to pull over and wait while a rental 4-wheel was struggling to come up the hill.
The guy was burning rubber and was about to burn out his transmission when he finally got enough and barely eeked by us.
As he went by, we could tell he didn’t have it in 4-wheel mode. Moron.
Haha. Jerkoff. OK, then.
I was on Keanakolu Road once, past Hakalau NWP, in the koa forest, and heading back to the Mauna Kea Access Road, and along comes a Nissan Altima. I think the driver must have been experienced, although I don’t know how it made it that far without bashing something underneath. “I’m fine,” the guy says. Then in a moment along comes a Porsche Cayenne, a competent vehicle I’m sure, but maybe a little out of its element. It was actually dirty. I wish I’d asked where they were going.
Anyway, thanks for the conversation.
Emergency Vehicles should not be exempt from being 4 wheel drive, for the same reason as other 2 wheel drive vehicles.
Safety.