Bikers Playing Fast and Loose

LA Times ^ | 11.29.06 | Ralph Vartabedian

[absolootezer0]

A Suzuki racing bike screaming at 80 mph in a 25-mph zone slammed into Gigliotti on Oct. 4 as she was leaving her job at Long Beach City College, igniting a fireball inside her Ford Escort.

"It is not uncommon to see these kinds of accidents with motorcycles, particularly high-powered super bikes," said Raymond Dennison, the Long Beach detective who investigated the crash. "The whole function is to go as fast as they can."

[Old Professer]

If those things were made to be ridden on the back wheel the steering fork wouldn't be in the front.

[AppyPappy]

When they were building the new I-40 bypass near Winston-Salem NC, the crotch-rockets would run on the closed road at night. To avoid detection, some ran without lights. Until one hit a road grader at 100mph+. No brake marks. What a mess.

[AppyPappy]

If the bike was doing 100, she may not have seen him.

[tx_eggman]

Nothing makes the old ticker pump faster than going from zero to 150 and back to zero in under 25 seconds

Nothing makes it stop faster than going from 80 to 0 in an instant ... like the Darwin candidate in this article did.

[dljordan]

"The thinking is poisonous and downright sophomoric."

Yes but it has many adherents until their own ox gets gored.

[taxed2death]

"If those things were made to be ridden on the back wheel the steering fork wouldn't be in the front."

Funniest thing I've read re: motorcycles in a while. Thanks, I'm gonna print that out and hang it in my shop.

:)

[discipler]

I'm thinking you lost your marbles in an accident. If the bike was going the speed limit, she would no doubt have had plenty of time to cross the lane. But a small bike going at that great of speed would be asking for trouble. I understand defensive driving and the importance of watching for motorcycles, but this is completely the bikers fault.

[dsc]

"This thinking simply tries to eliminate a problem by eliminating a freedom."

I wouldn't advocate eliminating a freedom, but ***dern***
I hate motorcycles.

[Tribune7]

Bikers Playing Fast and Loose

Sounds like a plot from any number of movies circa 1966

[JeffAtlanta]

I was told by someone that the police do not even attempt to catch these high speed bikes because they are so fast they can't do it. That may be hearsay.

They can't out run the radio though. I do believe that high speed chases involving bikes are discouraged though because the rider will probably die if he has an accident.

From message boards, fellow bikers have expressed the best the way to run from the cops is to pull over and then take off once the cop car stops. That should give the rider enough distance to get off at the next exit and lose the cop.

[discipler]

You are right on.

[AppyPappy]

Except for one thing. The cop now has your license plate #

[RobRoy]

>>I hate motorcycles.<<

I did too - until I got one. I was 44, put 35,000 miles on it and never went down. I'll be getting another next summer.

'Course, I don't do 80 in the passing lane doing wheelies.

[Minn]

but personally I have never understood the attraction of having my testicles slapped with a ping pong paddle repeatedly

What are ya, some kind of pervert or something?

[Rakkasan1]

a fool and his intestines are soon parted.

[dsc]

" I know that sucks but the driver of the car can't get off the hook by saying I didn't see the motorcycle. Its like saying I didn't see that Yield Sign."

With a motorcycle going that fast, a person could look left, then look right and not see him because he isn't there yet, look left again, pull out, and get slammed from the right.

[dsc]

"I did too - until I got one."

I rode some when I was younger. Then experience led me to adopt a policy of not needlessly assuming risks or greater risks. Life's risky enough, as our absent friends could testify.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The Victim:

The car:

Another account:

(October 10, 2006) -- LBPD says a new witness has come forward with information regarding the awful Oct. 4 collision at Carson St./Faculty Rd. that left LBCC Prof. Elisa Gigliotti fighting to recover from extremely serious burns involving most of her body.

LBPD Public Information Officer Nancy Pratt tells LBReport.com that the motorcycle driver (aboard a GSXR-style high-performance motorcycle) was near the LBCC entrance/pedestrian crossing on Carson St., facing west between two cars (straddling two lanes of traffic) when -- the new witness indicates -- the motorcycle driver revved his motor, then took off "like a rocket."

The new witness indicates that there was also a second motorcyclist nearby...but LBPD doesn't believe the two were racing and the second motorcyclist isn't facing charges, PIO Pratt said.

LBPD investigators very much want to talk with the second motorcycle driver...and we post contact information below.

After taking off "like a rocket," the first motorcycle driver reached a speed witnesses estimated at roughly 80 mph. PIO Pratt says LBPD investigators consider that estimate consistent with what they found at the accident scene.source

[Locomotive Breath]

I don't know how long was the sight line from where she was pulling out but the rider was closing at a speed 80mph/25mph = 3.2 times that of the speed limit. She may have seen him way off in the distance but you can't fault her for not knowing that he was going to "get there" so fast. Under normal circumstances she probably had plenty of time to clear the intersection and therefore did yield. Or is yield supposed to mean don't move unless no one is in sight?

[conservativeharleyguy]

"It's why we in the insurance claims business call them donorcycles..."

And you're why we in the motorcycle community call Insurance Adjusters assholes.