Accidents occur every
few days on Haleakala
bike tours

By Gary Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- A bicycle ride down Haleakala can be a breath-taking experience at sunrise with cloud mist drifting below. But some visitors have found the 38-mile ride with hairpin turns from the 9,700-foot level can hurt or kill.

Mary Messer of Syracuse, N.Y., died on Oct. 26 after going off the edge of a road in Haleakala National Park.

Jeanne Wyatt, wife of Arkansas State University president Les Wyatt, suffered liver damage and required surgery after an accident on a downhill bicycle tour in September.

She is recovering at home in Jonesboro, Ark.

Les Wyatt said he and his wife were in Hawaii to watch his Arkansas football team play the University of Hawaii at Aloha Stadium and took a side trip to Maui.

Wyatt said he and his wife didn't realize the potential danger of the bicycle tour ride.

"We've learned these accidents and injuries are not uncommon," Wyatt said.

The park requires bicycle tours to provide insurance and a full-face helmet for riders and to have a guide leading the tour and a van in the rear for those who choose to stop riding.

The guides are also required to have radio communications as they travel downhill.

Despite these precautions, accidents occur.

Park officials have recorded 117 accidents -- about one every 21/2 days -- from Jan. 1 through Oct. 31 of this year.

About 12 percent were accidents without injuries; 67.5 percent of the accidents caused minor injuries ranging from bruises to a bloody nose; 12.8 percent required basic life support and included broken bones; 6.8 percent required advanced life support; and less than one percent involved a death, the park said.

Park ranger Kerry Buck, the emergency services coordinator, said a preliminary review shows no problems with the conduct of bicycle tour companies.

"Their rides are conducted safely," Buck said. "We haven't found anything the bike tour companies are doing that is negligent. You're always going to have accidents. It's a risky sport."

Buck said the ride is not a coast down a country lane.

"We have some comments from some people: 'Gee, if I knew, I would never have done this,' " Buck said.

Andrew Messer, who was riding in the same tour as his wife when she died, said he thinks installing guard rails would improve safety. He said there were no guard rails where his wife went off the road.

Les Wyatt says he hopes more information can be given about the potential for death and injury on Haleakala bicycle rides.

"I don't think the companies deliberately set out to deceive anybody, but I did feel there could be more full disclosure about the hazards."

Park Superintendent Donald Reeser said the park is reviewing the accidents.

He said the park isn't recommending shutting down bicycle tours but wants to see if there are measures to reduce injuries.

Reeser noted that Messer was the first downhill bicycle fatality in the park since the tours began in the mid-1980s.

He said there have been some fatalities outside the park.

Brian Kramer, general manager of Mountain Riders Inc., estimates there are close to 70,000 bikers a year riding down Haleakala.

Kramer said the ride is an "environmental pleasure cruise" but with any activity, there is a certain amount of risk.

Kramer said that before going down Haleakala, riders are given a briefing and asked to sign a waiver saying they recognize there is a possibility of injury and death.

Kramer said if bicycle tours are required to disclose the number of deaths and injuries, what about disclosure for those riding airplanes or taking diving tours.

"It goes back to people taking responsibility for their own action," Kramer said.