Haleakala National Park Officials Institute Moratorium on Bike Tours

Haleakala Bike Tour; 'neofunkboy' via Flickr.

Officials at Haleakala National Park in Hawaii have decided, in the wake of the death of a woman last week, that more time is needed to review commercial biking tours in the park.

Beginning Tuesday there will be a 60-day moratorium on the bike tours, which lead cyclists down from the summit of 10,023-foot Mount Haleakala. Some of the tours start downhill just after sunrise. Last week a 65-year-old Ohio woman was killed in one such descent when she collided with the van of another bicycle company coming uphill. That was the third such death this year in the park.

In announcing the moratorium on the bike tours, park officials said they wanted the time to study potential hazards with cycling in the park, which is wrapped around a volcano on Maui in the Hawaiian islands.

"With three fatalities and several serious accidents within a year, it is important to stop and critically analyze this commercial activity in the park," says park Superintendent Marilyn H. Parris.