Another tourist drives into the Harbor

[lynne]

No wonder rental cars are in short supply and expensive

Another tourist following GPS drives down same ramp into water at Big Island harbor | Big Island Now

A tourist following GPS in Kailua-Kona did the same thing as another tourist one month earlier: driving down the same ramp directly into the water at HonÅkohau Small Boat Harbor.

bigislandnow.com

 

[Luanne]

Boats in a "puddle"? I guess these people have never seen a harbor before. I wonder what their liability for the rental car will be?

 

[klpca]

Not that it is any excuse *at all*, but I hope that whatever map app they are using will change their directions.

That said, really? Really? How does one have such little common sense?

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Not that it is any excuse *at all*, but I hope that whatever map app they are using will change their directions.

The problem with that logic is that even idiots have their place in the universe - to serve as a warning to others, if nothing else. So when things are made idiot-proof, nature responds by evolving more advanced idiots.

 

[klpca]

The problem with that logic is that even idiots have their place in the universe - to serve as a warning to others, if nothing else. So when things are made idiot-proof, nature responds by evolving more advanced idiots.

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Agreed, it's just getting kind of expensive.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Agreed, it's just getting kind of expensive.

Is that because we keep rescuing idiots from their idiocy? In the harsh world of Nature, idiots are addressed by removing their contributions to the gene pool.

 

[pedro47]

Maybe, the boat dock needs to install warning signs.

 

[ScoopKona]

Is that because we keep rescuing idiots from their idiocy? In the harsh world of Nature, idiots are addressed by removing their contributions to the gene pool.

Or, as park rangers at Yellowstone say about trash cans: "There's a lot of overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."

 

[Luanne]

Maybe, the boat dock needs to install warning signs.

Like "Water ahead"

But, but, but, my GPS told me to go this way!

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Or you can launch your car off of a tow truck.

 

[easyrider]

Our phone gps took us through a sketchy road to get to a friends house south of Hilo. We drove through an over grown mess, water hazard on the road and maybe through some ones back yard. When we arrived I was asked why we didn't stay on the paved road. Once on this road there was no way to turn around and it looked like a couple of blocks to their place.

Bill

 

[daventrina]

Maybe, the boat dock needs to install warning signs.

This one would work ….

 

[pedro47]

I now feel this is being done to gain media attention and to file an auto insurance claim.. Theses folks cannot be all that stupid.

 

[sponger76]

I now feel this is being done to gain media attention and to file an auto insurance claim.. Theses folks cannot be all that stupid.

But why would they want to file an auto insurance claim on vehicles that aren't theirs? In both instances they are tourists, so I assume those are rental cars. AFAIK the drivers wouldn't get anything out of an auto insurance claim, the rental companies would.

 

[davidvel]

I now feel this is being done to gain media attention and to file an auto insurance claim.. Theses folks cannot be all that stupid.

What would they get out of that, other than higher insurance rates and possible loss of use claims from rental agency?

 

[ScoopKona]

I now feel this is being done to gain media attention and to file an auto insurance claim.. Theses folks cannot be all that stupid.

Of course they can. I've seen a tourist mustang convertible in a tree. Most of 'em are drunk, lost and sightseeing. It's hard to tell if they're swerving around the road I live on because they're drunk, texting, or taking pictures. What they aren't doing is paying attention. That's too much to ask when they're on vacation. It's also why so many locals are sick of tourists.

Is it all tourists? Of course not.
Is it most tourists? Of course not.
But it's enough tourists that locals see someone do something stupid/insulting/destructive nearly every day. Hence all the "how do we throttle back tourist numbers" bills going through Maui at the moment.

 

[pedro47]

All tourists are not that stupid. I'm looking for a logical reason why this is happening so much this year. Also, sound liked all GPS Websites needs to address this problem. ASAP.

 

[ScoopKona]

All tourists are not that stupid. I'm looking for a logical reason why this is happening so much this year. Also, sound liked all GPS Websites needs to address this problem. ASAP.

It won't make a difference. Phones are part of the problem, after all. If people were looking at what they were doing, things would go better. The most recent tourist data is from March, when 170K tourists visited. There are only 200K residents, to put it in perspective. Some months we have more visitors than residents. Every month, Maui has more visitors than residents -- considerably more.

Get 170K people together on an island with bad roads and there are going to be problems. Two people driving into the ocean isn't even a blip on the statistical radar. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. People don't pay attention. They're in "tourist la-la land." And thus some of them get into accidents and generally behave badly. That's why I saw a mustang in a tree on the way home a couple years ago. A tourist in la-la land drove right off the road, and thankfully landed in the branches of a tree -- he could have fallen into a ditch instead. That is also rather common. Or they hit a telephone pole and everyone for twenty miles in every direction loses power for a day or two. Happens all the time.

In this particular case, it's not most, or many, or even "a few." It's two. Two people took a wrong turn and ended up in the Pacific Ocean because they were staring at a phone and not paying attention. I'd take that every day and twice on Sunday compared to what happens during Ironman. Then it's really bad.

 

[sponger76]

All tourists are not that stupid. I'm looking for a logical reason why this is happening so much this year. Also, sound liked all GPS Websites needs to address this problem. ASAP.

It's not that ALL tourists are that stupid. It only takes one or two to be that stupid, and yes, they do exist.

The human race has a wide range of intellects and abilities. Put it this way: I am regularly amazed at the incredibly great things some people say or do. And just as often, I am amazed at the incredibly stupid things some people say or do.

 

[daventrina]

All tourists are not that stupid. I'm looking for a logical reason why this is happening so much this year. Also, sound liked all GPS Websites needs to address this problem. ASAP.

Fixing any website or GPS won't fix the kind of stupid that drives into the water on a boat ramp

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

The human race has a wide range of intellects and abilities. Put it this way: I am regularly amazed at the incredibly great things some people say or do. And just as often, I am amazed at the incredibly stupid things some people say or do.

A quote oft attributed to Einstein (but likely incorrectly) is that one of the big differences between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.