Biker Deaths

[Hef]

Saturday night here in Mt. Vernon, IL a rider and his passenger were both killed instantly when a pickup truck made a left turn in front of them and they hit the truck. The rider was a young man 28 and his passenger a female age 29. The passenger had two small children who will now not have a mother. The driver used the usual excuse that he did not see the bike. No alcohol or drugs involved, just a very unfortunate accident. As stated many times on this board, you have to ride like every cage is out to get you. For those of you who believe in prayer, please remember all who were affected by this tragic event. Ride safe, Hef

[rmrc51]

How I hate to hear these things,,,,,.. 

We must "ALWAYS", ride defensively! NEVER let your guard down!!!

[X Ring]

One of the reasons both my Valks have headlight modulators!

Marty

[Cliff]

One of the reasons both my Valks have headlight modulators!

Marty

This one states it occured at night,, after dark modulator isn't much help.

[The Anvil]

Saturday night here in Mt. Vernon, IL a rider and his passenger were both killed instantly when a pickup truck made a left turn in front of them and they hit the truck. The rider was a young man 28 and his passenger a female age 29. The passenger had two small children who will now not have a mother. The driver used the usual excuse that he did not see the bike. No alcohol or drugs involved, just a very unfortunate accident. As stated many times on this board, you have to ride like every cage is out to get you. For those of you who believe in prayer, please remember all who were affected by this tragic event. Ride safe, Hef

I'm not asking this to start crap, I'm genuinely curious. What exactly defines an "accident"? Because while there may have been no malice involved there was at least carelessness. If the person was texting or on the phone then add indifference to life. I guess it's technically an accident because it wasn't the desired outcome, but we've gotta find a new word for this kind of thing. Someone is dead because someone wasn't paying attention behind the wheel of a deadly weapon.

I've been thinking of the headlight modulator, but I'm just not sure how effective they are.

This is all assuming the rider wasn't speeding or doing something else that would compromise the dcar driver's ability to judge distance/direction.

[MP]

Saturday night here in Mt. Vernon, IL a rider and his passenger were both killed instantly when a pickup truck made a left turn in front of them and they hit the truck. The rider was a young man 28 and his passenger a female age 29. The passenger had two small children who will now not have a mother. The driver used the usual excuse that he did not see the bike. No alcohol or drugs involved, just a very unfortunate accident. As stated many times on this board, you have to ride like every cage is out to get you. For those of you who believe in prayer, please remember all who were affected by this tragic event. Ride safe, Hef

I'm not asking this to start crap, I'm genuinely curious. What exactly defines an "accident"? Because while there may have been no malice involved there was at least carelessness. If the person was texting or on the phone then add indifference to life. I guess it's technically an accident because it wasn't the desired outcome, but we've gotta find a new word for this kind of thing. Someone is dead because someone wasn't paying attention behind the wheel of a deadly weapon.

I've been thinking of the headlight modulator, but I'm just not sure how effective they are.

This is all assuming the rider wasn't speeding or doing something else that would compromise the dcar driver's ability to judge distance/direction.

Oh no!  I agree 100%!  LOL

Sorry, I do not call these "Accidents".  These are preventable collisions.  There is "fault" here.  An accident, to me at least, presumes no fault.  ie, it just happened.

To me an "accident", is, a driver runs over a piece of steel in the road, the tire blows out, driver loses control, and rolls over.  That is an accident.

Most, probably 95%, of all crashes, are not "accidents".

IMHO!

And, thanks again for the help, Roger!  Come on out to Keystone, SD next year for the Reunion in June.

MP

[Jess Tolbirt]

when i worked out at Dow Chemical, there was no such thing as an accident,,,take a couple seconds and think about what you are going to do, what harm can come from your job if you do something wrong?,,things that we used to do like that is what makes me think there is no such thing as an accident,,just stupidity or carelessness,,,

[BigAl]

Accidents are part of the road and driving on them.

When they make perfect people and perfect cars there will be no accidents.

Until then you have what we have here.

Two people dead.

Sad as hell though.

[czuch]

Prayers sent.
Have you noticed how close people follow these days. I have a little Mazda as a dd and sometimes there isnt a car length between cars.
NASCAR training aside, some of these drivers need to slow down.

[sugerbear]

a few years back Mo, at least, change from MVA (motor vehicle accident) to MVC (motor vehicle collision), because "they" said there are no accidents. someone is always at fault.

that's how the paperwork changed in  the E.R.

[The Anvil]

a few years back Mo, at least, change from MVA (motor vehicle accident) to MVC (motor vehicle collision), because "they" said there are no accidents. someone is always at fault.

that's how the paperwork changed in  the E.R.

But that's not necessarily right either. If you've ever been on black ice then you know there's absolutely NOTHING you can do until you regain traction, you are 100% at the mercy of momentum.

I'll give you an example; back in the winter of 2007 I was on I93 south just past exit 3 at about 6:15 AM. Traffic was light at that hour and it was frigid cold. I had a Honda Civic in front of me in the left lane and I was traveling in the right lane (it's only two travel lanes up there) as we crested a hill the Civic in front of me began to slide sideways. Not immediately realizing what was happening I tapped the brakes in my Nissan Sentra and that's when I realized that we were driving on a skating rink. The car didn't slow at all, it just began drifting to the right. The Civic wound up sideways in front of me in the breakdown lane and I struck it in the rear quarter. Pretty hard. Nobody was going anywhere in those cars any time soon.

That also happened to be one of the few times I've ever really feared for my life. Not during the accident itself, but after we collided. I got out to see if the other party was okay and as I was approaching the other vehicle I saw a ten wheel tractor trailer crest the hill we had just passed over. I watched in horror as it started to get sideways, kinked and following the crown of the road right at us. Somehow the driver managed to get it straightened out and continued on. But for a moment that seemed like forever I thought I was going to have to dodge a big rig. My bowels were about to turn to water. I got to the other car and opened the door, the driver was stunned but seemed otherwise unhurt.

Me: "Are you okay?"
Her: "I think so."
Me: "Well you need to get out of the car, quickly."
Her: "Wouldn't I be better off staying in the car?"
Me: "Some other time maybe but not now."
Her: "Uh, okay..."

We got out and climbed the embankment to wait for help. Shortly after we did a Buick came over the hill and lost control ending up in the snow about ten feet from my Sentra. A few minutes after that a NH state Police cruiser arrived and slid to a barely controlled stop behind the whole mess. The sun was starting to warm the road enough to melt the ice by this point but it was still hairy.

The kicker is; the girl I hit was cited for failure to control her vehicle, but there was nothing she could have done. I gave her my number and told her that I'd testify on her behalf if she fought it but I never heard from her.

Also, about the same time this was happening on I93 a family was devastated when a ten wheel roll-off truck hit black ice and crushed a car over on Rt.495 about ten miles away so it wasn't an isolated incident.

[sheets]

The CHP calls it a "collision report". The reporting officer makes a decision on who he/she believes was at fault. RJ should be able to clarify that.