Driver of truck dies, rider survives due to protective gear. "Neither speeding" http://www.koin.com/2013/07/28/deadly-crash-on-highway-51/ <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/embed/iframe?aspect_ratio=16x9&auto_start=0&pf_id=9621&rel=3&show_title=0&va_id=4173542&volume=8&windows=1" width="425" height="330"></iframe>
I guess that would be a seatbelt? How will that protect against a bike and / or its rider smashing into you through the windshield? As it has been said, a sad story with a lesson: Even in head-on collisions full gear can save your life.
From the OSP release: It's never a good day when someone dies from a simple mistake, but the story could have ended a lot different. It won't. It's pretty common for the press releases to say "was / was not using restraints" and "was/was not wearing a helmet". Being in a helmet law state, I've never seen one where they said the rider "was not" wearing a helmet. I wish they'd differentiate between "DOT" helmet and protest beanie, though- I suspect that'd make a difference. OTOH, it boggles my mind how many I see where the person was "ejected from the vehicle" and "was not using safety restraints".
Holy crap. Rider is lucky to be alive for sure. Sad news about the driver, no one likes to see someone killed. Sounds from the news clip like it was probably a typical SMIDSY-type collision.
Yup. As riders we need to add lateral motion to help other road users see us and wear gear to mitigate the risk of injury when they don't.
I did an in-lane slalom once and a cop stopped me. Of course he wasn't sure what to charge me with either. How about Knight Rider light bar under the headlight cluster? :huh
This is what I want to say to everyone who stops riding, or especially the folks who go out of the way to tell you that you are a death cheating idiot because his friend once died on one of those deathcycles. We ALL know people who died in car crashes, yet we drove in cars to the funeral.
That is true enough. But sometimes they just write stuff for the hell of it: I once saw a newspaper report when a tank fell off a train cart while loading. "No one was hurt, because the driver wore a seat belt and safety helmet". There are no seat belts in this model of tank, and the driver never wore a helmet during these maneuvers so he could hear instructions...
It seems our local news agencies love to tell us when a fatality was not wearing a seatbelt or helmet, but if you don't see any mention of either in the story, then you can pretty safely assume that they were present and in use.