Access to Mauna Kea

[TomK]

Assuming the protest continues and the access road remains blocked, we are moving into the time of year when thick fog is common at the intersection of the Saddle Road and the access road. This fog can be so thick it is almost impossible to see what's five feet in front of you. Combine that with driving over a lava field with various protesters and their kids running across the access trail the observatories have is exactly that, an accident waiting to happen.

Then we have some of those commenters saying just turn your lights on. Maybe some here don't have experience driving in thick fog at night. Of course the vehicles will have their lights on, but thick fog simply reflects light back at you so you will still not see something in the road ten feet away until you meet it.

Then the observatory vehicles have to deal with large pickup trucks that have a dead battery but just happen to have that failure as they are parked on and perpendicular to the trail and block access completely.