What your employer or landlord is hoping you never find out: your immigration status does not cancel your right to file an injury claim in Hawaii.

If the tire itself was defective - bad tread separation, sidewall failure, or a recalled tire that blew out on Haleakala Highway, Hana Highway, or the Honoapiilani route during summer heat - you may have a claim against the manufacturer and sometimes the distributor or retailer. Hawaii allows strict liability for defective products, which means you do not always have to prove the company was careless; you have to show the product was defective and that defect caused the crash or made your injuries worse.

If the shop installed the tire wrong in Kahului - wrong size, bad mounting, improper inflation, loose lug nuts, or failure to replace a damaged valve stem - the claim is usually more about negligence against the installer or repair shop. In that situation, keep the vehicle, wheel, and blown tire exactly as they are if possible. A shop's mistake can destroy a good product case or create its own separate one.

If the tire was recalled before the crash, that matters. Check NHTSA recall records and keep any recall letters, service invoices, and photos of the tire's DOT code. A recall is powerful evidence, but even without a recall, a defective-product claim can still exist.

A few Hawaii deadlines and practical points matter fast:

• 2 years is the usual Hawaii deadline for injury claims.
• Get the Maui Police Department crash report.
• Save the tire, wheel, receipts, and tow records.
• If this happened in a work truck or trailer, you may have both workers' compensation and a separate claim against the tire maker, seller, or installer.

On Maui, where road closures and long transport times can delay treatment, records from Maui Memorial or transfer records to Tripler can also help show how serious the blowout injuries were.