Army identifies motorcyclist found dead hours after H-1 crash
The 26-year-old soldier whose body was discovered about 11 hours after he crashed a motorcycle on the H-1 freeway was identified by the Army today as Spec. Patrick James Rodgers, of Willis, Texas.
Rodgers was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, the Army said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of Specialist Rodgers at this difficult time,” said Maj. Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of the 25th Infantry Division, in a statement. “The safety of each and every soldier within the 25th is of paramount importance, and it is a terrible tragedy to lose one of our own.”
Rodgers was a wheeled vehicle mechanic and enlisted in the Army in March 2010. He previously served in Oklahoma and South Carolina, and moved to Schofield Barracks in July 2014, the Army said.
He deployed to Kuwait for 12 months in 2012. He was a recipient of two Army Achievement Medals, the Army Good Conduct Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal, among others.
Police responded to the crash at about midnight Friday, but Rodgers’ body — concealed by the westbound freeway guardrail near the Palama Street offramp — was not found until about 11 a.m. Friday, police said.
Responding officers found the motorcycle at the scene, but couldn’t find its operator in the dark. A traffic collision report was created, and police were trying to determine why the motorcyclist’s body was not found.
Lt. Carlene Lau of the Honolulu Police Department’s Traffic Division said Rodgers’ body was located a far distance from the crash.
Police said Rodgers was wearing a helmet, and excessive speed is believed to be a factor in the crash. It was unknown whether he was still alive when police arrived at the scene the first time.
11 responses to “Army identifies motorcyclist found dead hours after H-1 crash”
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R.I.P Soldier !!!
Grossly incompetent elected officials must demand HPD use flashlights when searching in darkness !!!
Corruption, a red herring to blame elected officials and politicians on something they have absolutely no control of. EVERYONE uses flashlights or better yet headlights, to search in darkness.
how you figguh?
lym, this is what I’m guessing: motorcyclist sideswipes guard rail, gets catapulted between the guard rails. Bike continues rolling several hundred feet forward along the roadside. HPD finds crashed motorcycle right before midnight, searches the general vicinity AND below the freeway, WITH flashlights, finds nothing. Local hospitals are checked, with negative results. Everyone involved figured the rider survived and called his friends, who picked him up from the scene. Within 12 hours, one of tens of thousands of passersby spots the body and calls 9-1-1.
They did not look hard enough. After 1\2 hour of not finding any body, they could have called the station and get more investigators to help search the area. It is NOT that large a search area. Pretty clear they were tired had only one or two investigators and did not make a real effort and whoever was in charge probably did not take the incident seriously. Put it this way, if they ran the bike registration and it turned out the owner was the son of an HPD officer and they could not find any body, you better believe they would have many extra HPD canvassing the area early in the morning, even if was night time amd they had to get guys out of bed. By the way in 2009, former police chief Donohue’s son died in a motorcycle crash also on the same H1 freeway but on the Wilder St offramp.
Agree. First responders maybe lacked training, experience, or we’re just lazy to do a thorough investigation. They should also stop making excuses why the victim wasn’t found until the next day. Yes, we know it’s dark during the night & the victim wasn’t on the roadway. So if someone doesn’t land on the roadway they won’t be found? The only thing that’s clear is some supervisors do not supervise & just wear the rank.
PS:’ Regarding your scenario, by the extensive damage of the bike, almost guarantee the injury to the rider would be equally severe. Also if friends theoretically picked up the crashed motorcycle rider, they would have also brought a pickup truck to retreive the motorcycle and take it with them as well. If the bike is a new, larger displacement sportbike it would have cost the rider anywhere from about $13K to $18K, so even if it is crashed you would pick up the bike and take it with them.
This incident does not speak well for the tenacity of HPD. Very poor performance. Nothing but laziness and incompetence, pure and simple. And don’t expect any corrective action on their part either.
My goodness! All these armchair experts on crash scene investigation! It is my belief that there are some losers who just can’t wait to get up every morning and find something they can slam HPD about.
We don’t consider ourselves experts but you might not say such if your family member was found the next day.