State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

[pzarquon]

Seriously, Stay Away from Sacred Falls
Today, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has released a new video that they hope will warn people away from Sacred Falls State Park in Hau’ula on the North Shore. The park was the site of one of the most horrific tragedies in Hawaii history, a landslide on Mother’s Day in 1999 that killed eight people and injured more than 30 others.

[Kaonohi]

Re: State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

Maybe the State should ban people from Chinatown, as well; my brother in law was mugged and killed there. I attended to a man who was shot there. I'm sure there have been hundreds of deaths, far more than Sacred Falls and the Haiku Stairs.

I lived in Hau`ula and hiked Sacred Falls many times, and there was never any misfortune. I safely and successfully climed the Haiku Stairs twice. Successes outweigh the tragedy by a factor over one million.

Might as well close down H-1/H-203 as well - VERY dangerous!

I'm fed up with this nanny state. It's my life, and if I choose to risk it that's my choice. Warnings of dangerous areas to limit State liability should be enough.

What about the Ko`olau trail? It's a narrow path on the knife-edge of the Ko`olaus, yet there are no signs there.

This State is run by cowards and idiots. The Haiku stars were open for years under the auspices of the Coast Guard; all you had to do was sign in. When the State took over, it all went to wrack and ruin. Like everything else done by the State of Hawaii.

[scrivener]

Re: State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

I think that's a bit harsh. Yes, life is dangerous and there are threats to our safety around every turn. But when your actions, outside reasonable expectations, threaten the safety of others, the state has to get involved. It's not just about the welfare of hikers we're talking about here. Unless we want to give responders the option of picking and choosing which emergencies they respond to, we have to put restrictions on people going into areas where they might put rescuers at risk. The hikers who were stranded on the Stairway to Heaven last week when heavy winds damaged the already decrepit structure: should we have just left them to die or to figure something out? Or should we have left it to rescuers to make that choice on their own?

[mel]

Re: State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

Been to Sacred Falls in the late 1970s. Very nice. Mountain Apples too. Good eats and memory. However given the dangers, the liability and the criminal trespass fines ($2500 to start) + jail time, it is best to avoid Sacred Falls as well as the Haiku Stairs. Never been up the Haiku Stairs, but have admired the photos people have taken from the top. Nice.

Still these places are hazardous to hikers and first responders, and I agree with Scrivener. When other people are put into peril because of your stupidity then it is time to end it.

[Kaonohi]

Re: State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

I think that's a bit harsh.

(...)

we have to put restrictions on people going into areas where they might put rescuers at risk.

Of course, you are right; I was on an irrational rant.

Watched the video (my other, living, brother-in-law was in it), and changed my mind.

Mel:

Still these places are hazardous to hikers and first responders, and I agree with Scrivener. When other people are put into peril because of your stupidity then it is time to end it.

Of course; endangering your life is one thing (think Yosemite rock-climbers, skydivers) but endangering the lives of others is criminal.

I stand corrected.

-30-

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

When at the falls, pre-slide, seeing that mass of boulders perched 100+ feet up and starring down, you knew sooner or later it would come and just hoped it would be at night. It was scary, the time for action of whatever kind was then. That danger is over yet rocks still come down just like anywhere else, it's probably no riskier now than anything else similar. Over a decade later nobody has been injured since then and no reports of another slide.

[Kaonohi]

Re: State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

When at the falls, pre-slide, seeing that mass of boulders perched 100+ feet up and starring down, you knew sooner or later it would come and just hoped it would be at night. It was scary, the time for action of whatever kind was then. That danger is over yet rocks still come down just like anywhere else, it's probably no riskier now than anything else similar. Over a decade later nobody has been injured since then and no reports of another slide.

Actually, there have been other slides since then, but not as intense as that Mother's Day slide. Not reported cause no one was killed. My brother-in-lw patrols that area (DLNR), and he hates going up there.

No further injuries because of the hiking ban keeping people out.

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: State Video Takes on Sacred Falls Trespassers

But just like the stairs, dispite the ban and patrols aren't some still going?