Posted on 10/01/2006 7:58:01 PM PDT by Aliska
BOCA RATON, Fla. - A teen engineering prodigy who gained national attention in 2002 when he and his family received identification chip implants on live television was killed in a motorcycle accident, authorities said. Derek Jacobs, 18, lost control of his motorcycle early Saturday and crashed into a guardrail and a pole, the Palm Beach County sheriff's office said. He was wearing a helmet.
"It was just a crazy accident of a bump or something, and he was catapulted," said his mother, Leslie Jacobs. "He had, of course, potential, because he was brilliant, and he was just a wonderful son. He wanted to make a difference in the world."
(Excerpt) Read more at qctimes.com ...
Sad. Young and with a career. Nevermind the wrong choice with the microchip.
Wrong choice?
Couldn't help but wonder; mostly that happens don't seem to follow any particular script I can discern. Sure seems weird and ironic though, he had so much going for him.
Sincere condolences to the family, regardless, must have been a terrible shock.
Make that "mostly what happens doesn't seem to follow . . ."
Need to get the US Department of Bad Spinach on this one, stat!
Or maybe that 100+ hp crotch rocket he was riding was just too much to handle...
Nah! You're missing the point: If the Gov't had the monitoring and control capabilities in place, then they could have slowed his motorcycle down when his handlers realized that he was going too fast.
To each his own. There are choices.
Faster. No doubt.
Did F15Eagle get a timeout or perma-ban?
They call them donorcycles for a reason.
Derek, who'd been home-schooled, went straight to Florida International University near Miami, joining the College of Engineering at 16.
"Dedicated, visionary and innovative students like him help our college break new boundaries in engineering research and education," engineering Dean Vish Prasad said two years ago.
Mr. Jacobs was set to graduate this year, but he was inspired by his father's battles with cancer and other medical problems and stayed on at FIU to take pre-med courses, his mother said. She said her son wanted to be a neurosurgeon.
"He had, of course, potential, because he was brilliant, and he was just a wonderful son," Leslie Jacobs said. "He wanted to make a difference in the world."
Services are set for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Gardens Memorial Park in Boca Raton. Derek Jacobs, who had no siblings, is survived by his parents and grandparents.
I drove by the accident scene yesterday morning and saw the mangled crotch rocket being loaded onto the back of a flatbed truck. The motorcycle was a mangled mess. At the time, before the news account, my wife and I looked at each other and said "another dead kid". It's very chilling and sad.
Very sad. A great loss. While it's possible, of course, I do, however, question the suppostition that he was catapulted through the air by a bump in the road. I rode a bike for many years and never came close to being catapulted through the air by a bump in a public road that had a guardrail.
However, late one beautiful summer night many years ago, I was out for a midnight ride, powering around a graceful curve in the road at high speed when I hit a hard bump that nearly yanked the handlebars out of my hands and caused my thumb to jam up against the light switch and turn it off. I was doing a good 70 or 80 mph. I was in total, pitch blackness for about 1.5 seconds while I fumbled around in a panic trying to turn it back on. And when I finally did get it back on, I found I was right on the edge of the asphalt ready to sail off the mountainside. WHEW!!!
Damned bumps can be very dangerous in totally unexpected ways for motorcyclists. So be careful out there, guys!
Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread. I'm just an older guy trying to share an experience that nearly cost me my life with younger riders, many of whom I'll bet have NEVER heard of this particular danger. I know I've never seen it discussed anywhere else before.
Is it? I can understand why someone would not want to be implanted with a microchip, but I'd be interested in knowing why anyone would oppose someone else making that decision.
Did you know at the time who was involved, probably not? Did you know who it was before I picked up on the article and posted it?
I was certain some freeper would already have posted so did a search, came up with old articles.
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