Not a good day for the number 13. One rider lost his life.
COMANCHE, Oklahoma - According to Lawton news station KSWO, one motorcycle driver is dead and U.S. Highway 81 north of Comanche remains shutdown after 13 motorcycles were involved in a major crash.
Troopers say the bikers were headed south toward Comanche going around a curve on the highway when a pickup truck headed north crossed the center line, striking five motorcycles.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene. Three were airlifted to OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
The other four injured where taken by ambulance to Duncan Regional Hospital.
The other eight scooters had to lay them down and take the high side ditch to avoid the mess.
Although I'm sure there was probably nothing that could have been done to avoid the wreck; this is a good example of why ol' Paden is always in the rear when riding in groups.
A good day turned bad on US81...:-(
That's scary to hear, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear the group was riding too close together, maybe even side by side foolishness.
"a curve on the highway when a pickup truck headed north crossed the center line,"
Why blame the bikers? Is it legal to cross the center line in a curve in Oklahoma?
Within the past week I was driving through a cemetery and noticed the headstone for the brother of a neighbor. He was showing off by driving down the highway with the front wheel off the ground. He accelerated too much and tapped the back end of another bike in the group. That's all it took. Somehow his wife survived but he didn't. My neighbor and his wife were in the same group and witnessed his death. He was around 50.
> ...He was showing off by driving down the highway with the front wheel off the ground.
That's all it takes. I guess there's a time and a place for hot-dogging, but I've never seen it. Grandstand stunts are for the fool hardy and folks with a death wish as far as I'm concerned.
On a Spring afternoon in 1967 we all watched a kid named Billy McClain show his stuff in front of the high school as classes were letting out. He was zipping along the street in front of the school on one wheel when a big yellow bus turned left in front of him. It was the last thing Billy ever saw. He stayed 17 forever.
Staying alive is hard enough without tempting the grim reaper, he will grab an opportunity if he can.
I had a neighbor that took his young son to the stock car races. Afterward, on the way home, he stopped in the road and did a burnout. As he let off the throttle, the tires gripped suddenly and the truck lurched into the ditch, overturning and killing the dad. The son had to run 300 yards down the street to his house to get help.
Accidents are sometimes very horrible. Be safe out there.
I'd have to agree on riding too close together being the reason so many were involved. 13 motorcycles involved....striking 5 motorcycles. At hiway speeds, 13 motorcycles should be spread out over a quarter mile or so, yet they were all involved. Motorcyclists have no airbags nor a steel cage around them. Given the consequences of things "going wrong", riders ought to take the precautions they can. I don't know the conditions of this incident, but I've seen too many tight groups of riders, on ill handling machines, risking this type of result.
Ever since I was a little kid I had a fascination with flying. Through my twenties I took flying lessons but never could scrape together the scratch to buy a plane of my own, so I did next best thing and took to the air on two wheels. Living in Los Angeles in those years, traffic was a minor inconvenience to guy like me and I could slip through snarled traffic like an eel through the ringer. After more close calls with the old ladies in cages than I could count, I cashed in my chips and walked away from the table while I was still a winner. Haven't been on a bike since, and I do miss it, until I read something like this.
In the paper, rock, scissors game of life, two wheels lose to four every time.
