HONOLULU (KHON2) — Honolulu Police are urging drivers to be extra careful heading into summer. With school out and more cars on the road, we are officially in the “100 deadliest days of summer,” a period that spans from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
“The thing that we’ve seen a higher number in recently is pedestrian fatalities and motorcycle riders. The motorcycle riders that we’re seeing, a lot of them are speed related. Also, they’re not wearing helmets. We all know that helmets save lives,” said Major James Slayter of HPD’s Traffic Enforcement Division.
HPD said this year, Oahu has already seen 30 traffic fatalities compared to 12 during this time in 2024. Eleven of those have been pedestrians and seven have been motorcyclists.
“It’s extremely sad,” Slayter said. “We look at these as numbers. They’re statistics, but these are people. Right? These are our community members, whether they’re family, friends, coworkers.”
Slayter said that speeding gives you less time to avoid hazards and hazardous drivers.
“You always wanna be predictable as a rider as well, not zoom in in and out of traffic,” he added.
As for pedestrians, Slayter says that HPD has found that a lot of the victims have been walking in the roadway.
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“We actually had one individual lying in the roadway, and we have a lot of them crossing outside of marked crosswalks or against the red signal. So, again, everybody wants to be predictable as a pedestrian as well.”