He laid the bike down UPDATE

A second fatality in motorcycle accident I posted earlier. A girl driving a pickup truck made a left turn in front of an oncoming motorcycle. Biker hit the brakes, then lost control of his bike, or as bikers like to say "he laid the bike down". Bike collided with pickup, killing the biker and fatally injuring his wife.

It seems that most bikers don't practice emergency braking and maneuvering. Then when they need to use those skills, they often lose control of their bikes just as this rider did. Now, I can't say that he would have avoided a collision if he hadn't lost control, but I know one thing for sure: a sixteen-year-old girl will live the rest of her life knowing she's responsible for the death of two people.
Woman dies from injuries in motorcycle crash

Same thing happened here in Branch county 2 weeks ago. Teen age girl on cell phone pulled out in front of the motorcycle. Guy and his wife both killed, both went to school with my kids, left young ones at home. Terrible.

I regret your theory on bikers being able to avoid collisions with training . Do you ride a motorcycle ? If so , cruising at 55 or 60 mph feeling the breeze & enjoying your spouse with you not wondering if some careless automobile driver will pull from a driveway or cut you off at each driveway or side road . And all of a sudden there is the opportunity you've been waiting for . Try to break from traffic speed in order to keep from hitting a inexperienced or careless driven car . Now lets take a situation also well known of , & that's having a deer or cow or horse run in front of you . Will practicing emergency stops prevent a collision . More not than yes . My younger brother whom owned & operated several motorcycles for roughly 20 yrs , was coming home one evening about 13 yrs ago at 11:00 PM , when a young teenage boy pulled directly across in front of him . Rons new Honda Espencade 1500 had oodles of lites all over it . Witnesses said the bike could be seen about 1/2 mile away coming towards them & going ahead of them because of all the lites, but the kid said he didn't see any lites . My sweet brother lost his life at age 45 , leaving 2 children & a nearly divorced wife & a girlfriend . The cops said that there was in no way Ron could've missed that kids truck because of the closeness before impact . So sir , what training could Ron have had to prevent his unnessasry death . The kid got off scott free , yes he will live with the memories , but so will his loved ones . Ron lived beside me ,we did a lot to help each other & I still miss him . We need to rethink comments made toward biker riders . By the way , my X wife made me sell my bike immediately because of Rons death . We all need to drive offensively & remember , Bikers don't get a second chance , so take special care to watch out for them more .God bless

ALL BAD.

But as for the "16 year old living the rest of her life........blah blah" she wont give a rats tail after a month or two. This generation is nothing like perhaps the one you (and certainly I) grew up in.

She will be partying like it is 2099 before you can say "WTF has happened to my country?".

good...she needs to feel responsible for the rest of her life because she IS!
all this BS about riders not having control is a buncha crap...laying a bike down burns up forward energy faster than hitting the brakes in some circumstances and letting the tires/wheels absorb some of the crash.
i dont know what your obsession is with all this tragedy but go find another dead horse to beat.
i've buried more than one brother to left hand turn morons and the "innocent but i didnt see the motorcycle occifer" types.
oh,and for what its worth i been riding over 50 years and kicked in plenty of doors when they started crowding me out of my lane...steel toe engineer boots have more n one purpose on a bike.

Been riding 36 years. Never laid bike down on purpose. Accidentally, yes. Blowout on front. Bike went down on right side. I somehow pulled it up and then when tire left rim, went down again on left side. Impossible to maintain balance. Bystanders were telling me what I should have done. I challenged anyone there to push bike and keep it up with tire not seated on rim. Some tried. Nobody could do it. They shut up and left. I rode many years with a cop who did stunt riding. He was trained by police dept. to lay down bike to stop faster and safer. We are talking Harley. Other bikes or today's thinking I have no idea. I never liked the idea of laying it down and still ride small 200 cc. One other thought I once rode Moto Guzzi 850 Eldorado(very heavy) It would slide through many stops. Tires good, brakes good. It was a candidate for laying down, I suppose. Or thats what was the opinion of bikers back then. (1973) Dave

Ok so my question is are you or have you ever been a biker????????? Me I'm on my 41srt year on a bike and 99% of the time it is the car/truck driver at fault. Ya I still ride and see how the biker is at blame when not sorry sore subject with me and have lived but maybe should not have. I totaled a car with a bike one time

hhhh

I haven't ridden a bike since I was a teenager. But I question the idea of burning up energy by laying it down. I have seen a couple of accidents where the bike slid for 300 ft or more. Really impressive light show at night. The brakes are pretty well engineered. This problem with bikes vs other vehicles has been around a long time. Really hasn't changed - bikes lose. I read here awhile back that the fatality rate on bikes is 30 times the rate for a car. Cars keep getting safer, bikes, not so much.

I agree with you Ken.

The story states:

McCabe said the teen driver recently got her driver’s license

Forget motorcycles, I once was hit by a young teenage girl so hard it bent the frame of the Bronco I was in. She sped from a stop sign across four busy lanes to plow into me, I never saw it coming. Told the LEO that she "thought she could make it." Some comfort for me (yah right) as I left in an ambulance. I would have been dead if I was on my bike with that idiot playing frogger in traffic with her car.

I saw a lot of dumb stuff with my CDL as well. Too many people in a hurry for nothing. Too many innocent people get hurt.

Thought I'd be cool and get a bike in my teenage years. (before cell phones, GPS tom toms and all the other things that cause most of the incidents these days) Bought a decent Honda SL 175 and rode it for 2 weeks and found out just how stupid people can be towards bikes. Sold the SL and bought a Chevy K-20. Been in a few minor bash ups (to the K-20 and F150s anyway) over the past 32 years. But I'm sitting here typing this after a 10 hour shift.

I farm on a busy State Highway, and most of the time around here it is the bikers fault. Plus mass always wins.lol

Sometimes there just isn't enough time to react. Rider experience and the particular type of bike can make a huge difference as well. An experienced rider on a sport bike/crotch rocket can out accelerate and out brake any other vehicle on the road. In the case of braking, they have to be really careful so they don't get rear ended. I'd guesstimate that a sport bike will use less than half the distance a car uses to make an emergency stop. Laying a bike down is an emergency maneuver for some situations. On the other extreme of the scale, a chopper with long forks will handle about as good as a brick on wheels. Dave

Yes, I do ride. I don't consider myself a particularly experienced rider, although I've ridden off and on for about 40 years.

Does it make you any less dead if you're killed in a crash and it wasn't your fault?

I'm 51 and have been riding since I was 8.
When I started riding on the street it was different than it is now. Yes, there were still idiots out there cutting in front of you figuring you're on a motorcycle and can stop quickly. Today with cellphones and everyone needing to get there right now it isn't as much fun (in my opinion) being out there on the street. Being on a bike means you have to be twice as alert to your surroundings because you never know who sees you and who doesn't. I have been hit on a bike. A woman making a left into a liquor store. Luckily I saw her and whipped the bike to the right. Her bumper took off everything on the left side of my bike. Luckily my girlfriend wasn't on the back at the time because her footpeg was also removed. She probably wouldn't have seen it coming and lost a leg. I was very lucky. I was riding a heavy bike (Harley) and the impact didn't knock me down. If I hadn't swerved and lifted my left leg over her bumper things could have been a lot different.
I am a member of the AMA and get to read about a lot more mc accidents that don't make the papers or local news. Most of the time it's someone turning in front of a bike and claiming they didn't see them. And also most of the time the person driving the car, truck or whatever that caused the accident gets a slight citation for failure to yield.
Yep, there are some real idiots out there on bikes also. Just because their bike may be capable of triple digit speeds they feel the need to use that in traffic on city streets and highways.
Laying a bike down in a controlled slide is an emergency manuever that is very effective. Properly done you can ride out the slide on top of the bike and maintain some manueverability with the handlebars. I have done it once on purpose just to get the feel of it and know I can do it if I need to. Will I remember to do it when the moments comes? Don't know. I know my first instinct will probably to grab a handful of front brake!
I ride just to enjoy the ride. Nowadays it's mostly on back country roads during the day.
My 2¢
Rich

BC, I don't have any obsession with this particular accident. I only used it to illustrate my original point, which is that "I laid the bike down" is a biker euphemism for "I lost control of my motorcycle". There are dozens of examples every day, I just happened to come across this one.

The idea that you can stop a modern motorcycle faster by sliding it on its side than you can with brakes is just absurd. Steel on pavement doesn't generate much friction. Nor do flesh and bone, for that matter.

"It seems that most bikers don't practice emergency braking and maneuvering." Not trying to start any trouble,but thats a screwed up way to look at the situation.Like it was the bikers fault someone pulled in front of him and he couldnt stop on a dime.

To: rail head
"But as for the "16 year old living the rest of her life........blah blah" she wont give a rats tail after a month or two"

Maybe, maybe not. In 07 we had a 25 yr old blow through a stop sign with a silage Truck (semi tractor with a 20 ft forrage box on it) Hit a SUV with a family in it. 9 yr old girl dead two more in icu for 3 weeks. The family put it's life back together, the truck drivers life fell apart. A real go- getting young man is now a divorced, unemployed alcoholic. To the point that the family in the SUV has tried to reach out to do some type of intervention

(quoted from post at 04:31:42 08/12/10) thats a screwed up way to look at the situation.Like it was the bikers fault someone pulled in front of him and he couldnt stop on a dime.

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They're just as dead though aren't they?? A course like mentioned may have made all the difference. Nice thing about being an American and free to make choices is you have the right to choose between being ignorant and being prepared.
Bikes catch a lot of he!! here, drivers just don't consider them and how fast some of them move (too fast for safety sometimes). Saw 2 accidents with them since I've been here. 1 was passing (perfectly legal and acceptable speed) a string of cars on the autobahn, someone in the string pulled out to pass and didn't see him. The driver of the car behind me picked up what was left of a leg that the gaurd rail had taken off at about the hip.

The other one was in a hurry and decided to pass between two big trucks that were in the two lanes (passing). Was a couple hundred meters back and didn't see exactly how it happened, but he made it about halfway thru. Sure there was a picture on top of a casket at that funeral.

Life is full of choices, we just have to make the right ones.


Dave

I been riding a Harley for several years, took motorcycle safety class, practice evasive tactics once a month including intentional laydown. Thankfully never had to use any of it. I'm 62 and survived Viet Nam, worked in construction for years, nd have over a millon miles safe driving in an 18 wheeler cross country. My opinion is your won't die until it is your time.

(quoted from post at 05:09:24 08/12/10) My opinion is your won't die until it is your time.

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Exactly.... The safety stuff just may stop you from being a cripple.
Hope you're not practicing that laydown on your new Harley? :roll:

sad to mention it, but in the last 2 days there have been 3 motorcyclists deaths in n. alabama. 1 hit a tree, 2 collisions with vehicles.

railhead,
"But as for the "16 year old living the rest of her life........blah blah" she wont give a rats tail after a month or two. This generation is nothing like perhaps the one you (and certainly I) grew up in."
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Maybe, maybe not. In some respects, you're right, this generation is different. However, I've got 3 daughters (good kids) and I taught all of them to drive starting at 15. There were some scary moments as I sat on the right side and endured running stop signs, switching lanes without enough space, going the wrong way down one-way streets, etc. The scariest thoughts were when they finally got on the road on their own at 16. My stomach was in a knot until they were back home safe. Even now, when they're on the road as young adults (especially at bar closing time) I'm dreading a ring of the doorbell.

My point is that the only way to get more experience as a driver is to .....drive. This being the case means that we'll all spend time on the roads with people whose experience level doesn't approach ours and we should, therefore, drive defensively. When I see a car at a cross-street or driveway (especially when I'm on a road with a higher speed-limit, I slow down a little and get ready to hit the brakes or make an evasive maneuver.

So, don't get too angry with EVERY 16 yr old that gets into a fatal accident.

As for generational differences, this generation is much more aware of the dangers of drunk driving IMO. My kids and their circle of friends ALWAYS use a DD when they go out. I remember my younger days and the numerous times that I or my friends should NOT have been behind the wheel of a car. As another poster said, I guess it was not our time to go.

It's not all teenagers and/or bikes. Monday, had a 75 to 80 year old lady pull out in front of me. I was driving a van and was making a right turn into a parking lot. She was sitting at a stop sign on an intersection to my right about 150 feet before where I wanted to turn. She saw my turn signal and just assumed I was turning at her intersection and not the parking lot 150 feet farther down the road. Fortunately I was able to stop before I T-Boned her. Her eyes got kind of wide. Hope she learned something from the experience, I sure did!

Congratulations!!You have just confimed what YOU said about bikers having "an IQ only 2 degrees higher than room temperature" You Should really take a class.

We lost a great tractor mechanic back in June to a motorcycle accident. Somebody didn't see him and did a left-hand turn onto the road right as he was going by. I've seen car, motorcycle, tractor and truck accidents caused by operator error or just plain stupidity, but in this case, no amount of intelligence, diligence, or training would have helped in the .5 second it took to happen.
RIP Howard Barnes.

That's one of my pet peeves, Slim- signalling long before you actually plan to turn. I always wait to turn on signal until there is no place left to turn except my chosen destination- then you don't give a "wrong signal" to someone waiting to pull out. Purpose of turn signal is to tell others where you intend to turn, IMHO.

Can't argue with your "your time" statement but I would like to add and do believe one can escalate their "time" by being careless, stupid or the recipient of someone else's carelessiness or stupidity. If someone steps out in front of one of those 18 wheelers like you drove they have just found their "time". Also 62, Viet vet, welcome home.