The family of a North Shore surfer is seeking restitution after he was injured in a car accident on Kamehameha Highway. Over a year after he was struck by a car after a surf session, the family of Dakota Briley is suing the City and County of Honolulu and the State of Hawaii.
The son of Pipeline legend Shawn Briley, Dakota was an up-and-coming North Shore surfer. On June 14, 2025, the 20-year-old was loading boards into a car on the side of Kamehameha Highway, near the surf break Chun’s, when an 18-year-old driver veered into the shoulder, struck a traffic sign and then him. Dakota was pinned between two vehicles and received multiple fractures in his legs, pelvis, ribs, and skull, as well as extensive spinal injuries. Since then, he has embarked on a long and difficult road to recovery.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Circuit Court alleges that the city and state put Briley in danger by not providing a safe parking area near a popular beach. As Hawaii News Now reports, Briley’s parents were also named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and the driver of the vehicle that hit Briley was named as a defendant. Per Hawaiian law, the suit does not ask for a specific amount for damages.
“Using the roadside, the shoulder of Kamehameha Highway, as a parking area for some of their most popular parks is dangerous. And they haven’t done anything about it,” explained Briley family attorney Mike Cruise. “The governments, both the city and state, have long acknowledged that this is an unsafe situation and have just decided to keep kicking the can down the road.”
