BRIEF: Another Motorcycle Rider Crashes, Dies

A North Kohala man died Saturday when his motorcycle crashed on the Akoni Pule Highway.

Police said Lance C.K. Pule, 38, of Kapa‘au was riding a 2011 Kawasaki motorcycle south on the highway near the 21-mile marker when he overtook another vehicle in a no-passing zone, lost control and ran off the right side of the roadway.

Pule was taken by the Fire Department’s medivac helicopter to Kohala Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:31 p.m., 45 minutes after the crash was reported.

According to police, witnesses said Pule was riding at a high rate of speed when he crashed. He was not wearing a helmet.

The death was the sixth on Big Island roads this year, compared to five at this point in 2011. It was also the second motorcycle fatality in eight days on the Big Island, and the ninth such fatality of the year in the state.

Six of those crashes occurred on Oahu, where another motorcycle rider is in critical condition following a collision Saturday night with a parked car in Wahiawa, and one on Maui.