Moped rider badly injured
By John Windrow
Advertiser Staff Writer
A young man was in critical condition yesterday after a moped accident Saturday night on the 2600 block of Kalihi Street.
The accident occurred around 11 p.m., said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city's emergency services department.
Cheplic said the man appeared to be in his 20s. He was taken to a trauma center in serious condition and his condition later worsened to critical.
The EMS report said the accident was a "motor vehicle collision involving a moped."
Neighbors yesterday said they did not see another vehicle and they thought the moped driver lost control and crashed. Police said they were not called.
Neighbors said the moped driver had been going up and down Kalihi Street during the night revving his engine. They said he was heading down the street in the direction of Bishop Museum when the accident occurred.
The residents complained that boys and young men on mopeds regularly speed up and down the street late at night and are a problem in the neighborhood.
Renalyn Dasmarinas, 19, a student at Honolulu Community College, heard the accident near her family's house, went out to the street and called 911.
"I heard a popping noise, like he was revving his engine and heard a sound like he lost control, and then the crash," she said.
She went out of her family's house "and saw him on the ground and his friends come running."
Dasmarinas and neighbors said there was only one moped going up and down the street, and they did not see a car or any other vehicle involved in the accident. Dasmarinas said the young man was not wearing a helmet and appeared to have "a serious head injury." She said he wore slippers and no shirt and was badly scraped up.
Another resident did not want his name used because he said the moped riders cause disturbances and live nearby. The man said "it looked like he lost control. He was lying in the street about 20 feet from the moped, like it went out from under him. He had been roaring up and down the street."
One woman who lives on the block said loud mopeds are a problem "every night."
