Two things:
1. Look both ways.
2. Don’t do wheelees.
Sometimes Darwin and his theory comes with collateral damage.
I saw a dumba$$ on a motorcycle doing at least 80 mph pop a wheelie on the damned interstate I-75 a few months ago!
Could not believe it.
The next day I heard a motorcyclist had wrecked and died on the interestate. HAD to be the same guy!
Darwin award.
Lashon Hudson.
Somebody watched to much “Biker Boyeeeeeeez”.
I ride, but I don’t do stupid things on it and I always wear a helmet. I see idiots doing crazy stuff on bikes on an almost daily basis. It’s usually only a matter of time before they make the obits.
Even though the guy on the motorcycle was being an ass, the pedestrian is going to get the blame.
A 45 year old should know better than to do a stupid stunt, especially at that speed. Condolences to the families of these two individuals, especially the pedestrian.
I personally witnessed a similar outcome from screwing around on a bike.
I was coming home from the beach (down on Highway 1 in California). A couple of guys on bikes passed us, and one was wheelieing at about 60 mph.
It wasn’t 15 minutes later as we drove up Pescadero Rd. that we came upon the scene of an accident, and there was a dead motorcyclist (the wheelie guy) lying in a ditch.
FWIW he was from the same extraction as Lashon Hudson probably was.
I don’t know what it is about “stunters”, but they seem to comprise a high percentage of black motorcyclists. Stunting is pretty cool, when it’s done in a controlled area. Out on public streets, it’s worse than street racing, because a large part of the time the front wheel is off the ground, removing any way for the rider to react to traffic conditions. I’ve seen bikers ride wheelies on controlled-access highways (bad, but at least all traffic is going the same way), surface streets (utterly stupid given all the variables), and even once on a road across the top of a dam (and what was he going to do if someone lost their boat or swerved into his lane). It’s inexcusable, and damages the reputations of those of us who are responsible riders.
That's a residential area, and at night too. Just moving out of the way of a half-seen vehicle at that speed is not easy. If a motorcyclist is doing a wheely at night then he's practically invisible from the ground. He's just a loud noise. Do you move forward, back, what? Hell, you just freeze and hope for the best.
No way this was the pedestrian's fault - despite the way the article seems to be slanted.
I was riding my Harley on the CA91 in California. Six riders pulled up along side me in the #3 lane. All of em on rice rockets. The first set of two pulled wheelies, did I mention we were doing in excess of 70mph? Then the 2nd set did the same. The last set came along side me and they did wheelies.
I kept looking forward to watch my lane and would glance over when I could. I was looking forward when this last couple of guys were showboating when I heard a scrapping noise. I looked over and this one guy over rotated and was going down.
He ended up in on the shoulder and was lucky to be wearing leathers. I caught up with his buddies to signal they lost one. I rode the rest of the way home laughing. Dip Sh!ts.
RIP.
On 2 separate occasions I’ve come close to wiping out motorcycle drivers, on both occasions they were coming out of the setting sun on a road I was about to pull onto.
I try to be careful but sometimes they are very hard to see.
Several years back my 83 year old uncle was killed in the same manner, a garbage truck came out of a side street and didn’t see him. Unk used to ride that Harley regularly between his home in Florida and his home in Indiana. Yep, 83.
It’s definitely crazy to do that on the Interstate, but I have to admit it is pretty cool to get passed in your car by someone doing a wheelie.