Posted on 12/12/2016 3:29:44 PM PST by BBell
A motorcyclist who sailed off the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway after crashing into a sport utility vehicle was clocked at 116 mph moments before the wreck, a bridge official said Monday (Dec. 12). The search for the victim has resumed, with sheriff's deputies from St. Tammany and Jefferson parishes scouring the water in boats.
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Dufrechou said a Causeway police officer was driving south on the bridge on Saturday at about 11 p.m. when he saw a motorcycle speeding north. The officer radioed to a colleague who was parked in a crossover near the bridge's eight-mile hump.
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Investigators were not sure whether the cyclist lost control and flew off the motorcycle before or after hitting the left rear of the SUV, which was in the right lane, Dufrechou said. The debris field started just before the 8.1-mile marker and extended several hundred feet to the north, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
We were told it was so high because of the high instances of insurance fraud and the large number of uninsured drivers. I know people who use relatives addresses in Mississippi so they don't have to pay as much.
There are a large number of people who cross the causeway daily who carry life preservers or life jackets and rope. They also carry those little tools that are a combination of a knife, for cutting the seatbelt, and a hammer for breaking their window.
And the high rate of car thefts.
How many drivers don’t have auto insurance?
Mississippi: 28%
New Mexico: 26%
Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Florida: 24%
Alabama: 22%
Michigan: 19%
Kentucky and Rhode Island: 18%
Indiana, Washington, Arkansas, Ohio, and Georgia: 16%
Washington D.C., Colorado, California, Maryland, Texas, and Wisconsin: 15%
Missouri and North Carolina: 14%
Nevada, Minnesota, Alaska, and Louisiana: 13%
Arizona: 12%
Iowa, Montana, Hawaii, New Jersey, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, and South Carolina: 11%
Wyoming, Oregon, Kansas, and Connecticut: 10%
North Dakota and South Dakota: 9%
Utah, Idaho, and Nebraska: 8%
Vermont and Pennsylvania: 7%
New York: 5%
Maine and Massachusetts: 4%
We all know that these numbers are probably not accurate, because they get insurance, and then they stop paying and when you contact their insurance contacts you find they no longer have insurance. They are still driving though.
I had the pleasure of pumping a teen’s chest to keep him alive after he flew around me and t-boned the car in front making a LEGAL left turn.
You don’t pay too much attention to the wrecks listed in the paper till something like this happens. After this I noticed lots of deaths by motorcycle in the paper.
I’ve had too many family members injured or killed by motorcycles.
When the mid-life-crisis hit the plant I worked at many of the men bought Harleys. They tried to get me to do so but I refused. Even back during the EASY RIDER days I had no desire for a motorcycle.
I was a couple of years behind you. I worked in No Va., but lived in King George County NE of Fredericksburg.
The only dead people I’ve encountered in the wild have been due to motorcycle accidents. Four. One in particular was horrifying, he’d been basically rolled into a ball under a truck and somehow was not just alive but conscious for about twenty minutes prior to dying.
I love the look of Harleys and especially love the newer Indians, but won’t even consider riding one on a public road because of this. I had dirt bikes for years prior to getting my driver’s license.
I lived in Stafford near Fredericksburg.
Was he just a smear?
Had deeded access to Potomac Creek. It was a nice peaceful place. Heard one siren in the many years I lived there. Did have a tornado that just missed us though. That was fun, not. There was only one way in and out and that road was blocked with about 40 downed trees. I was actually surprised how quickly it did get cleared though.
A couple of years ago I was driving in west Texas. Flat and straight. I was doing 85 and big trucks were blowing me around. I got off the highway and did county roads until I started getting into canyon country.
I did not want to repeat that.
Did you ever go to the Apple Harvest Festival at Graves Mountain? We used to go every year.
I hear you. I used to ride all over the country when I was younger drafting trucks and the like. Nothing bothered me. The buffeting and bow waves of trucks, no problem. Now, I can’t stand the four lanes. I have visions of becoming street pizza when I’m on the interstate.
That’s interesting thanks. Explains a lot.
I told Mom not to ride that Norton that fast.
Actually I had never heard of it, and it says it is only an hour’s drive from Fredericksburg (I looked it up). Sounds like it was probably fun.
It was beautiful. Driving there the leaves would always be in fall fashion and you could buy real apple cider, not pasteurized, and a very large assortment of apples. Blue grass music, freshly made pork rinds and Brunswick stew. But unlike here in Louisiana, there was no alcohol. You can’t have a festival in Southeast La. without beer.
If he would have slammed into another driver there would have been shyster lawyers trying to frame the other driver.
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