FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Student riders Dean Guzman, left, and Levon Baba prepared for drills during the Motorcycle Rider Course Riding and Street Skills, held last month at Leeward Community College.

State lets military
offer motorcycle
safety training

Only 1 site offered a state-approved
course before the rule change

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By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.com

Any certified instructor, including those in the military, can now teach motorcycle safety training, under a state Department of Transportation rule change.

Before the change, which went into effect March 4, the only state-approved course was available at Leeward Community College.

"The new program will make it possible for the military motorcycle instructors to have the same rights and responsibilities as the LCC instructors," said Marilyn Kali, Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

The new rules "will make it possible for the military to offer courses that will qualify graduates to obtain insurance for their motorcycles and, in some cases, to take the road test from their instructor rather than the driver licensing agency (LCC), neither of which they could do before."

She added that many of the 94 individuals who had expressed interest in becoming instructors were in the military and have since moved from Hawaii since the Transportation Department sent letters several weeks ago notifying them of the change.

But Dan Martyniuk, coordinator and chief instructor of the motorcycle training program at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe, said the military is not really interested in training new riders, but it just wants to take care of those who already ride. He said he usually steers people to the state course for introductory training.

The U.S. Army, Air Force and Coast Guard all require those taking their motorcycle training courses to be licensed riders. The Navy and Marines allow drivers with permits to take their courses under certain conditions.

Martyniuk said the new rules neither benefit nor hamper the military programs. But he is afraid that there will not be one standard curriculum offered by nonmilitary instructors because they will be allowed to pick and choose which curriculum to follow as long as it meets the state's guideline rules.

"I see us going into a whole different direction of not having a standard curriculum, which is exactly the opposite of what we thought we were working towards," he said.

Robert Becker, past president of the Hawaii Motorcycle Dealers Association, said he did not know of anyone who has expressed interest in becoming a state instructor. As for the rule change, he said: "The more classes offered, the more people taught, the better. That's what we're looking for."