Bike Wreck!

[FZ6R_Mike]

Ok so im at work (11pm-7am) and I get this email from my mom about 1am. Some of it has been deleted or changed due to names.

Bad bike accident at the end of the driveway. Dad must have just missed it, cause I heard sirens right after he left for work. Then grandma called & was telling me about it. So...I walked down. A 17 yr. old guy & 16 yr. old girl were flying on a crotch-rocket. She was telling him to slow down!! When they came past Raccoon Creek Rd., Center Township cop was sitting there & they were flying then, so he took out chasing them, but backed off. When they got to the sign right past Green Garden Rd., (on grandma's side of the road) a deer ran out & they hit a doe. Split her completely in half!!!!!!!! One part was before the culvert on grandma's bank, & the other half was almost to the driveway. The bike ended up almost to the neighbors driveway across the road - the upper driveway! Cops said he was going about 130!!!! They were both life-flighted to Presby. A family friend said her shoulder was messed up & the guy definitely had a broken leg. Neighbors were there cause they couldn't drive past to get home so they walked up & saw them. Said they were saying he may have hurt his tail bone & spine. So not sure on his condition, and somebody said he was having trouble breathing. But deer body parts all over the place along with bike parts. The girl was laying right past neighbors driveway - came close to hitting those mailboxes & the wood driveway sign! Luckily she didn't hit the metal sign or she could have been like the deer! Kids just don't learn!!!!

HOLY SHIT! Now to give a little insight on this stretch of road they were riding. State Route 18 has some pretty nice straight stretches but its got some twisty sections that are pretty sharp and got some weird dips in those turns that can scare the hell outta you if you have never rode it before. Plus both sides of this road are mostly wooded areas and this happened about 10:30 at night. This rode would be fun to ride but now comes why I HATE riding PA roads. I don't know if other states do this but in Western Pennsylvania they TAR AND CHIP the road instead of paving. This means they tar the road then put gravel on top. When its freshly done its a nightmare because its all loose gravel. This road was done along time ago but I hate even going the speed limit (45mph) on this stretch of road.

So where they hit the deer and the bike landed is a good 100 yards. UPHILL!!! Even where the girl landed is about 25-50 yards. These teens are VERY lucky to even be alive! I left the road names in so anybody could google map the road. The intersection, where the cop was sitting, is Rt.18 and Raccoon Creek Rd. Where they hit the deer was between Green Garden Rd. And Ravine Lane. The bike was laying at the road opposite Mayhue Dr. I can't remember the name of it.

Once the local paper publishes the story I will post a link to it. Thought I would share the story so maybe it will have some effect on people to SLOW DOWN!

 

[MichaelInVenice]

There's a time and a place for that kind of speed. It's called a track day. Even the best public roads have too many risks for that kind of riding. All it takes is bit of dripped oil from a broken down car two days ago, or any number of other completely normal everyday occurrences that can create situations you just can't recover from and usually can't survive at that speed...

 

[Deputyfarva252]

common sense should prevail but rarely does , sad but you cant fix stupid......as a LEO I have seen a few nasty motorcycle wrecks , and most of them have been caused by Speed + lack of experience.......Hope they both make it. My dad hit a dear doing about 45 mph , broke his hip , tore a muscle in his hip and broke his femur and a mild concussion, I couldnt imagine the impact at 130 mph.....

 

[Detrich]

i mentioned it on another thread already, but since we're on the subject i almost hit a deer last Monday too... Let's just say that I saw my life flash b4 my eyes in the few seconds leading up to when i needed to make a decision as to whether to brake really hard and risk crashing or to take a chance that the deer would bolt the opposite direction of me if i swerved around it and crossed the double yellow. (almost zero traffic up there on that stretch, which is why it's so fast.) lucky for me he bolted right, and i swerved left. this was coming out of a pretty fast (blind) turn up in Big T. I think i was going maybe 60 or 65... and, this deer was a really big one- had to be around 6' tall. this has never happened before, so next time i think i will remember to honk the horn or something. it just all happens so fast that u only have a few secs to decide what to do. God was definitely watching over me that day, and i hope no one here ever has to ever experience something like this. but, technically we are invading the animals' habitat, so we just need to be aware that they are out there and to be extra careful- if not looking out for traffic, then to also remember animals can be a road hazard too.

hope those guys who got in the accident make it through ok. they were going way too fast.

 

[Rabbitman109]

Wow, that sounds horrible. Definitely no reason for that kind of speed on the street, and it irritates me that people do that, you aren't just risking your own life, you are risking others. Not all PA roads are tar and chip. In fact, they don't do that here in South Central (Franklin County). There are actually tons of good roads to ride, mountain roads that are nicely blacktopped.

 

[alaskanflyboy]

Wow, that sounds horrible. Definitely no reason for that kind of speed on the street, and it irritates me that people do that, you aren't just risking your own life, you are risking others. Not all PA roads are tar and chip. In fact, they don't do that here in South Central (Franklin County). There are actually tons of good roads to ride, mountain roads that are nicely blacktopped.

Does PA work like Washington where all the good roads are around the Seattle area and not other 4/5ths of the state?

 

[Rabbitman109]

Does PA work like Washington where all the good roads are around the Seattle area and not other 4/5ths of the state?

I don't think so....I have traveled to a lot of different places in the state, there are good roads everywhere I have been (Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and tons of places between) With that being said, there are a fair share of crappy roads too, just depends on when you are at a certain place if they haven't fixed the road yet.

 

[MNGreg]

Does PA work like Washington where all the good roads are around the Seattle area and not other 4/5ths of the state?

Sounds like MN... They spend almost all the construction money in the twin cities. The rest of the state gets leftovers and crappy road maint. Or it takes forever for them to redo things, like 2-3 years to repave a rd that should have been able to be done in about 1-2 months. (35/61 near duluth good example.. been working on it for several years but when we went up to Two Harbors last weekend, the were still working on the same stretches of road as they were 2 years ago.