Too many fatalities this year already

[RhadamYgg]

Another death on the Calgary streets last night - the radio announcement went something like this: "rider on a sport bike doing 200 km/hr on Deefoot Trail (our main freeway/thoroughfare) loses control and rear ends vehicle"...

I have a bunch of relatives in that area. It always amazed me how well planned out that city was, but all the streets were named trails!

That sucks about the biker. I wish there was a way to exclude this from the fatality statistics - or have it in a full statistic and then a separated statistic so we can have a real idea of what our risks are when riding - if we do not ride on local streets and hyper velocities.

RhadamYgg

[havegunjoe]

We just last night had another biker go down. He hit a deer, flew over his bars and got hit by the car behind him. I don’t know how many that makes for MN this year but I had heard the rate was up.

[High_Side]

Another death on the Calgary streets last night - the radio announcement went something like this: "rider on a sport bike doing 200 km/hr on Deefoot Trail (our main freeway/thoroughfare) loses control and rear ends vehicle"...

I'm 39 years old and still get the phone calls from my mother to see if it was me......

They also said that the guy that he was racing took off, choosing to save his own skin rather than help someone who was dying. Bummer.

[ceemes]

Last week after picking up my new fishing license, a young lad pulled up beside me on a Ninja 250, he was wearing an expensive Shoei brain bucket, some nice gloves, t-shirt, shorts and trainers....oh yeah, and a full torso amoured vest, something like this:

.......I'd say he was half way there.

[jaskc78]

yeah, i see a lot of the shorts/t-shirt with vest armor around here in tucson, too. sometimes with a helmet but most times not.

[kawgurl]

I'm 39 years old and still get the phone calls from my mother to see if it was me......

They also said that the guy that he was racing took off, choosing to save his own skin rather than help someone who was dying. Bummer.[/quote]


Ugh...

[RhadamYgg]

Last week after picking up my new fishing license, a young lad pulled up beside me on a Ninja 250, he was wearing an expensive Shoei brain bucket, some nice gloves, t-shirt, shorts and trainers....oh yeah, and a full torso amoured vest, something like this:

.......I'd say he was half way there.

I like the armor... As a supplemental for under a jacket - to give better chest and back protection.

RhadamYgg

[Rodboc]

I don't know about an increase but I got a little shiver this evening as I went through an intersection that I cross several times a week since a biker was killed there on Sunday. He was rear ended by a teenager while turning. I'll bet my house she was on her cell phone.

Celle phones while driving...never ending problem. I used to use may cell phone while riding : stupid. Now I do promote bluetooth devices as much s I can : my bluetooth headset changed my life.

I found a cool way to explain why headset are important :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPXwRgVf68w

I know it's a commercial...but useful

[Ryethil]

I have a professional interest in this thread...

Yes, we have the ususal kid/sportbike problem. I guess it must be nice being immortal.

But the biggest rise has been in middle aged men trying to relive their youth by riding a motorcycle. Most are new re-starters who may have rode a lot when they were younger. But now they're trying to redevelope old skills and haven't gotten that far yet.

The second group are scooter riders trying to save money on gas. They get little of no training and wear at best a helmet. They don't accelerate fast enough to get out of trouble and get involved with cages all too much. The problem may not be in the hands of the scooter rider. Traffic has doubled in the last 2 years and continues to climb. The drivers seem less observant and have no respect for the speed limit.

Today though just one kid in a parking lot who dropped his motorcycle on himself. No tragedy, just kissed his bobos and made them all better.

[RhadamYgg]

I have confirmed that a fatality this past weekend was a cousin of one of the guys I works with wife. He leaves behind two young children.

The circumstances I have so far is this:

He was riding with two other riders in a turn. He either saw something or tried to avoid something mid-turn and lost control of his motorcycle.

I have no idea of high-side or low side. Apparently there was a fixed object involved. He was wearing a helmet (not known if it was a real helmet or a plastic dinner plate). He died of internal injuries.

He is described as a veteran rider. Other than the helmet I don't know about any of the other gear.

My friend indicates we may not know exactly what happened. My best guess is that he didn't like something about the turn and laid in some braking mid-turn.

Of course, today (he died Saturday, wake/funeral were Monday/Tuesday) my friend returned to work and probably came straight to my office indicating that I should sell my bike in the next year.

It has made me want to write something with the title of "Life, Death and the Risk and Benefits of Riding Motorcycles".

RhadamYgg