This happened in Sweden........Both driver and passenger in the car were killed as well as the cycle rider. Police calculated the speed at 155 MPH. YUK.
maybe five years ago a motorcycle broadsided a minivan on Federal Highway here in fort lauderdale. lady in the minvan was crossing Federal; cyclist was doing 120 or so. Cut the minivan in half, killed the cyclist and a little girl. Sad. Stupid. Typical. -- Steve
..... with the lesson being, of course, that no matter how IN CONTROL you think you are, you aren't. There's always someone else out there that can do something to kill you. The cyclist was probably doing fine, right up to the point where the car pulled out in front of him The car driver was doing fine, right up to the point where a cyclist doing 155 came along. My goal as a safe driver is to never give control of my life to someone else. I try to never put myself into a situation where I rely on the abilities of the other driver. I wish they taught that in driver's ed.
Here's the writeup that accompanied this and a couple more photos. Sounds like this one could not have been avoided with the bike travelling that speed. Reaction time is non existent. I always recalled from my engineering days that 60 MPH is 88 ft/sec. There numbers are pretty close. The Honda rider was traveling at such a "very high speed", his reaction time was not sufficient enough to avoid this accident. Swedish Police estimate a speed of ~250 KM/h (155mph) before the bike hit the slow moving car side-on at an intersection. At that speed, they predicted that the rider's reaction time (once the vehicle came into view) wasn't sufficient enough for him to even apply the brakes. The car had two passengers and the bike rider was found INSIDE the car with them. The Volkswagen actually flipped over from the force of impact and landed 10 feet from where the collision took place. All three involved (two in car and rider) were killed instantly. This graphic demonstration was placed at the Stockholm Motorcycle Fair by the Swedish Police and Road Safety Department. The sign above the display also noted that the rider had only recently obtained his license. At 250 KM (155 mph) the operator is traveling at 227 feet per second. With normal reaction time to SEE-DECIDE-REACT of 1.6 seconds the above operator would have traveled over 363 feet while making a decision on what actions to take. In this incident the Swedish police indicate that no actions were taken. Nobody's safe doing that speed (or anything close to that) on anything other than a closed circuit race course of some type.
Bike Week I use to go to Bike Week in Daytona every year in Febuary and I always ended up seeing a "T-BONE" at one point during my time there, But nothing like that! This is part of my argument of selling these "ROCKETS" to Young Men and Women or People that do not have enough experince on a bike that fast! If they put a throttle that can do that kind of speed people will use it! I think that they need to put on some sort of speed limiter on these bikes for new riders! I rode Harleys and Trumpets for a long time and I was more into taking my time and enjoying the sights! I have seen alot of Young and Older Riders end up DEAD or in a Wheelchair because they wanted to feed their "NEED FOR SPEED". I will admit to doing the same thing but never to that extreme! Don
Very well stated, thank you. :TU: Couldn't have said it better myself. :bglasses: I agree that things like this need to be taught to everyone wishing to operate any motor vehicle, not just young people beginning to drive. I could go into much more detail about safe driving, perhaps another time.
Almost ended up as one of these statistics in 1985. I had bought a brand new Yamaha V-Max that spring, all because I got the "itch" to ride again. :Brow: Man, that itch needed scratching with the fastest bke on the road at the time. :3gears: That summer, a nice new table top flat stretch of straight concrete highway was opened some 20 miles south of town. ou: Enter one hi perf bike, with one stupid rider, yup, that was me. :spank: I'd read how this bike could attain a top speed of around 150 mph, and just had to find out if that was true. :shock: Nice weekday afternoon, next to no traffic, smooth road, let's hit it. :error: All went well for the first 5-6 seconds, until at about 115 mph, the dreaded front wheel shimmies set in. :shock: :eek2: If you've never experienced this, it's kind of like feeling that the front wheel is about to fall off, due to vibration. The only way out was either more speed, or gradually letting off the throttle. Well, since I was still some 35 mph shy of top speed, option 1 was the way to go, at 125, it stopped. That's when my senses rebounded from the stupid setting, just about the same time as I passed a car doing 60 mph just like it was sitting there. That was the last time I saw the other side of 100 mph on a bike. I was somewhat lucky that day. I've seen these pics before, but chose not to post them at the time. At present, I do not ride a motorcycle, perhaps one day I'll get back on.
One of my wife's classmates and life long friends died on a crotch rocket in New Orleans last spring...triple digit speed, a passenger, and a light pole in downtown...both died instantly, with my wife's friend being decapitated and loosing both of his legs on impact... Too much stuff can go wrong on one of those...because of the extreme hills/curves in these parts, we get lots of guys flying through here from KC and St. Louis...and lots of them hit deer and other varmits or high side it from gravel washing across the road... This thread is the *exact* reason I've never allowed myself to buy one of those beasts...
that's why they call them donor cycles! I will stick to four wheels , thank you, and limit my triple digit speed to the track
I had one right up until my sister, the ER nurse, called to tell me about the 2 guys they brought in to donate organs, both were killed by an inattentive motorist on I-75. She also noted that there wasn't much they could donate.......even though they were still technically not quite dead yet........
Incredible! If you notice on the passenger side the B pillar is still intact which means that in order for the rider to fit and end up in the car he would have had to be in the actual hunched over riding position. Probably found him still clutching the bars. Death machines (both car and bike)
Very sobering. I had a KZ650 when I was in the Air Force back in '86. I attained 135 mph on highway 50 between Sedalia and Knob Noster, MO which was a limited access highway at the time. I rode it out for about a mile or two and then came to my senses that just one mistake or one vehicle entering from a side road is all it would take. That was the last time I did that.
I couldn't help but try and figure out what kind of bike this guy was riding. My guess is a Honda RC45? I have been up around 170 MPH on a CBR900RR I had. Once on the track, once out in the middle of nowhere. When you see the yellow lines go solid... :eek2: You don't have time to change your mind. :shock:
Please don't turn this thread into a bike bashing one! Yes, we can see and read that the rider of the sportbike was very young, foolish, and had just received his lecense. He made a very bad and fatal choice that also took out two innocent people in the mix. Lots of people ride motorcycles including many here on this site and bikers come from all walks of life. We ride because we love it and we accept the calculated risk to do so. Yes, I am also an organ donor and proud to be one! I also don't ride foolishly and don't take unnecessary chances. I ride as if I am invisible to those in cars or cagers as we refer to them. That erson on the motorcycle next to you may be someones father, son, professional, Buick lover, etc. Ride safe for those here who ride.
Wow I knew this would happen. When I was stationed in Italy we would ride our bikes at 150+ all the time on the tangenzialie. We often referred to it as Fiat splitting speed. It is could to see I survived my phase of excessive speed.
