Posted on 07/19/2004 9:01:53 AM PDT by BluegrassScholar
Town of Waukesha - Motorcyclist Daniel Buckel was within 10 feet when he saw the potential disaster stretched across a dark and foggy rural road just ahead.
Disbelief turned to fear, then anger, as Buckel's 2-year-old motorcycle hit a barrier of kitchen-variety plastic wrap that was wound thickly from traffic pole to traffic pole on opposite sides of Guthrie Road, south of Highway I.
The clear plastic trap, which was 3 to 4 feet above the two-lane road south of Waukesha, sent both Buckel and his passenger, girlfriend Theresa Brzykcy, into a bloody slide across the asphalt.
"It's appalling, and it's really frightening," Brzykcy said. "What was their intention? This should make people more aware that pranks like that are not as harmless as they seem.
"They had done a pretty thorough job. It was wrapped around pretty thickly," she recalled.
The malicious prank has Waukesha County sheriff's investigators concerned because other capers involving plastic wrap occurred in the town last year, although none was as serious as the motorcycle crash early Tuesday, Sheriff's Detective Steve Pederson said Friday.
Investigators were planning to canvass homes near the crash site this weekend, looking for information that will lead to a break in the case.
"When something like this happens someone always brags about it," Pederson said. "If anyone has heard anything about this or any other incident involving (plastic) wrap, contact us.
"Maybe someone had seen this happen or removed (plastic) wrap from other areas," he said. "We'd like to know about it."
Last year, a number of parked cars were found bound in plastic wrap to prevent drivers from getting inside the vehicles, Pederson said. Plastic wrap bonds together, giving it strength and making it difficult to remove.
Pederson said investigators were unaware of other incidents of wrap being stretched across a road.
The couple's injuries sent both to Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Buckel, 22, of the Town of Waukesha, required 15 stitches to close a deep gash above his right eye and also broke a finger. Brzykcy, 19, of Brookfield, got a deep cut and bruise to her right cheek along with other scrapes and bruises. The motorcycle was a total loss, Buckel said.
The 1 a.m. ride was supposed to be a short one meant to relax the couple, who have known each other for more than a year. He had just left his bartending job, and she was waiting for him at his family home. Earlier she had taken his mother to a medical appointment.
Buckel said he was driving 5 mph under the 45 mph speed limit because the motorcycle headlight had shone on deer along the road and there was a slight haze from ground fog in the low-lying area.
"I didn't see it," Brzykcy said of the barrier. "He braked so hard I figured it was a deer. My first hit was on him, which totally saved me. Then, I landed on my head (on the road). Everything went white and yellow and red, and I blacked out for a while. I woke up on my back, laying in a driveway."
Buckel, fueled by anger and concern for Brzykcy, fought off his own pain and called 911 on his cell phone, he said. Among the first emergency personnel to arrive was Beckel's best friend, Scott Sommers, a member of the Town of Waukesha Fire Department.
"I ran over to my girlfriend and looked around to see if the pranksters were still around," Buckel said. "I didn't see anyone. When my friend arrived, it made things a lot easier to cope with."
Oh yea, and real quiet pipes. Go figure . . .
BluegrassScholar, wow, this is quite a disturbing news article you've found. Needless to say, once they find the assh*les responsible, they should cool their heels in jail for a LONG time.
Even more disturbing are the FReepers who are thinking, "Gee, that motorcycle trap made from cellophane sounds like a great idea to get back at riders with loud pipes..." I don't detect any sarcasm or see [/rant] tags, so some of our online cohorts have r-e-a-l problems with which to contend.
Factories use this stuff to wrap furniture, pallets of food, and plenty of other shipping/industrial applications. Stretched tightly across a roadway, it would take down a motorcyclist as sure as God made apples. It's premeditated and should pack a wallop for punishment.
~ Blue Jays ~
what do pinto beans on a lawn do?
First,, wow, guys got enough nitrous to last all night!!
Second,, I always give the benefit of the doubt when i suspect a load of BS just to be polite, so this guy is stone cold bone scrapping nuts!! Don't ride with 'im!!
I can only suspect that he's going after the v-twin japs. Serious spurtin' to take on a op-6 valk or, what is it, kowie or yamamamamaha 1800cc 2 wheel rocket ships. If he's a low-life he's not running into to many TP 141cube or Merch v-twins in his circle of friends which is what he is bottled up to do with a dresser vs big v-twin slammers.
And what kind of highway driving can this bozo do? hehehhe Wherever he's going it sounds like he doesn't plan on spending a lot of time getting there.
<|:-)~~
It was a yellow rice rocket.
Posted by Arthalion:
"...When that dumba** kid rode into my tiger pit (3-foot deep concrete-lined pit designed specifically to catch and forcibly dismount dirtbike riders coming up my road) his dad tried to have me arrested and then tried to sue. In both cases, he had no case because the traps were set inside not only my property line, but my gated fenceline. That particular kid had actually knocked my brand new $300 gate over and gunned it up my road without knowing that there was an open trap ahead.
Both the police and the judge said the same thing...they were forcibly tresspassing, and the boys' injuries directly resulted from that. I could have strung Saran Wrap, concertina, or a flipping piano wire across the road, and it's unlikely that I would have been held any more responsible..."
*************************
Arthalion, I don't know you and you don't know me...but I'm waving the BS flag here. I don't believe you're telling the entire truth. There isn't a state in this country who would accomodate your well-documented propensity to cause bodily damage. Hey, you even said it on the Internet.
Just because I don't like schoolkids cutting through my yard doesn't mean I can dig a trench as deep as the tallest, wide as the fattest, and line it with punji sticks just because it's my yard. It would be classified as a crime.
~ Blue Jays ~
the full face would have snapped his neck like a noose.
the chin strap acts like a hangman's noose.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 218, which is the standar for motorcycle helmets, not no standard to adress tension on the neck rotation.
It is a product defect with is litigated when the neck is snapped but the rider does not die.
Do you mean the chin strap, which is present on every motorcycle helmet, or the chin bar across the face of a full-face helmet? I presume the latter...
sorry about the typos.
the chin strap.
if you hit a full face on the lower chin the head is jerked back causig the snap. It is a specific liability problem of full face helmets. (picture if you will a nice upward directed of a baseball bat impacting the lower chin point of the helmet. The whole helmet moves back suddenly with the chin strap acting as a noose.)
It was first discovered during the 1950's when the navy was trying to figure out why their pilots who ejected into the ocean were turning up dead from broken necks. It resulted in design changes.
The same effort is more difficult on full face helmets which have added weight.
Exactly, which is why I have have the stock crossover pipe on my Sporty with modified slip-on baffles. I have all the WOT I need, but with enough reversion that I haven't sacrificed any mid-range torque to get it.
I normally don't do this, but you're just flat out lying. Booby-trapping is illegal. It doesn't even matter if you booby-trap your house behind locked doors. If this kids father had called the cops as you say, you'd be behind bars, and if this kids father had gotten a lawyer as you say, he'd own everything you have.
Barricades on private property aren't boobytraps, as far as I can tell--even if they are difficult to see at a high rate of speed. If they are, then a lot of existing barbed wire fences are booby traps. Heck I've even run into barbed wire in the woods just walking.
If something is going to hit the chin hard enough to snap someone's neck, wouldn't that also be hard enough to smash the entire lower portion of someone's face into a crunchy jumble of pulp and bone fragments?
Conceal one and find out.
Never pick an argument with anything named FEULING!
I could very well be mistaken--I do know less than nothing about motorcycles. I could swear the familiar silver H-D logo was on them, but it's possible I didn't see accurately when trying to leap out of their way. It was noticeable that they didn't have the knobby tires one would expect with off-road vehicles, but the paths are very smooth and level and perhaps these wouldn't be necessary.
I could very well be mistaken--I do know less than nothing about motorcycles. I could swear the familiar silver H-D logo was on them, but it's possible I didn't see accurately when trying to leap out of their way. It was noticeable that they didn't have the knobby tires one would expect with off-road vehicles, but the paths are very smooth and level and perhaps these wouldn't be necessary.
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