How to kill yourself in less than six hours...

[daviddunn]

[QUOTE=lightfighter;4209930]

Originally Posted by squall_line

I

Maybe if there was a cop around, he wouldn't have been going 60-80 MPH on a residential side street, so it's the police department's fault for not baby-sitting him?
QUOTE]

funny, we are being sued by a lady that rearended one of our patrol cars. evidently, there is something normal people dont get that lawyers understand...

Of course it's your fault if you get rear ended! If you wouldn't have been stopped, you wouldn't have been hit! Plain and simple. My client was minding her own business, driving down the road, and little did she know, that a trained officer of the law was stopped on the ROAD! Your Honor, if I may, what are roads for? For driving? Or for stopping? I rest my case.

[JimMoore]

Made me so mad I wrote a letter:

Mr. Rupkalvis,

I read your Sept 19th story on the death of Max Valdez with great interest. I am an avid motorcycle enthusiast, and I teach motorcycle safety classes. Don't get me wrong, I feel terrible for the kid and his mother. That being said, I'd like to clear up a few things with the article.

First, the article states the bike slid 280 feet after the rider laid it down to avoid a semi-truck. Quite frankly, that's ridiculous. Motorcycle magazines frequently do features on the stopping power of motorcycles. A typical sport bike (no one says "crotch rocket") can stop from 60 mph in about 120 feet. Most likely, our young man was speeding significantly, panicked when he saw the semi, locked up the front brake, and crashed the bike. How fast does one have to be going in order to slide the length of a football field, then hit something hard enough to break his neck? 100 mph? 120? I don't know, but suffice it to say "fast" would be an understatement. Is that somehow the motorcycle's fault, or the fault of the rider? BTW, a crash investigator at the local PD could probably get you that information.

The article mentioned that he did not have an endorsement. If that is true, he was not properly trained, and he was breaking the law. In motorcycle safety classes, students are taught to stop the bike quickly and under control. Perhaps, had the rider taken a safety course he would have had the skill to bring the motorcycle safely to a stop in the generous amount of room he had available. Even better, he may have gained enough insight to realize that riding a motorcycle at speeds over 100 mph on city streets is not a good idea.

His mother states that he "raced dirt bikes for years." It is hard to say if that is true or not. you could probably google up the results of local races for the past ten years and see if his name comes up. In any event, the acceleration characteristics of a modern dirtbike, especially one made for racing, are similar to a sportbike from 0-100 mph.

The bottom line is that an untrained, unlicensed, illegal rider bought a sportbike and crashed it the same day while traveling at a high rate of speed (probably showing off for his friends) and died. It is a sad, but entirely predictable tale.

Sir, millions of people ride sportbikes within the limit of the law. Sure they are fast, but the are comparable to high end sportscars. Let's be careful about calling for more government regulation in any aspect of our lives. Let's be especially careful about calling for more government regulation due to the actions of untrained, unlicensed, lawbreakers.

Thanks,

Jim Moore
Jacksonville, FL

[daviddunn]

Good letter! It would be great if it got posted along with the article somewhere, although I doubt it. Good job Jim.

[PFFOG]

[QUOTE=lightfighter;4209930]

Originally Posted by squall_line

I
................ there is something normal people dont get that lawyers understand...

In spite of your political views, I think all agree that the cost of living in the US has been greatly effected by the abundance of lawyers and the frivolous, but frequently successful litigation.

How much cheaper would health care, housing, autos, food, insurance and everything we use every day be if we had serious tort reform?? But alas, it will never happen as many of our politicians are lawyers, and watch out for themselves.

[Yamalover]

I am very sorry for her loss but it is not the motorcycle's fault. We continue to think in this country that legislating is going to overcome Stupidity. It will not if you try for a thousand years. The only answer is learning how to properly ride a high performance bike and to wear the best gear you can afford(evertime you ride) and to respect the bike and its capabilities. Every motorcylce is fast(some are just faster than others).

[lightfighter]

280 feet of skid using a guesstimate coeficient of friction .50, puts minimum speed at about 65 mph.

[CARacic]

what about "At 11:45 p.m., he went out with two friends" young kids and their friends means the group IQ was about 30. hey when I was that age the really stupid stuff always seemed to have friends as witnesses. The graduated licensing concept is a good one, not perfect but given the performance of even a 600 these days (zero to splat in just a second more than the really fast bikes) I would never let a kid ride anything that quick for a street bike. The problem we have is that bikes are an easy target, and lots of politicians are willing to make hay off the issue, remember the DOT "safety" motorcycle of 20 or 30 years ago. While I am sorry for the young man's loss I think I have to agree with the personal responsibility group. The kid did it to himself.

[JimMoore]

Originally Posted by lightfighter

280 feet of skid using a guesstimate coeficient of friction .50, puts minimum speed at about 65 mph.

Yabbut, he still has to hit hard enough to kill him.

[lightfighter]

Originally Posted by JimMoore

Yabbut, he still has to hit hard enough to kill him.

yes, its also notable that the impact and any braking he may have done as well as secondary impacts may have provided who knows how much speed reduction from his approach speed. I guess the artical is most insulting because it misses the painfully obvious point:

this woman has legit grief, beyond what a person should have to bear. If only she would direct that energy at reducing the real killer: lack of education. like Nail says in his sig line: Misdirected inertia.....

[bradzdotcom]

i feel sorry for the kid, worse for the mom, but i have to ask:
"where were you mom?"
not just on the night of the accident, but during the years previous.
every year over 23,000 kids are racing throughout the country to qualify for a week long national motocross amateur event at Loretta Lynn's ranch.
they show up in motorhomes, pickup trucks, little cars pulling trailers. they motel it, or camp out. dads spin wrenches, moms run pit boards and create sandwiches, siblings stand at the fence to watch.

these families show up with INVOLVED parents, who have supported and been a part of the kid's lives while taking them to the races, many of them for years. it's like baseball/soccer/ball sport, except with an engine.
they're involved with their kids. they know their kids. and even though their kids race motocross, i'd guess that most aren't going to up and let the kid buy a strong, powerful bike, and then be astonished that it's a strong, powerful bike. "I didn't know" doesn't work as an excuse. try it when you don't pay your taxes...doesn't work.

i can completely understand being shocked by the incident, but i don't see how you could be shocked to find out how powerful the bike was...if you had been involved, payed attention, you would have KNOWN what he was buying, KNOWN he was in over his head, and maybe even know that since it was only "hours old", it might not be the best idea to let him out at midnight with friends to go ride the bike.

picking up one of his motorcycle magazines, doing a quick search on the web, seeing the ad from the manufacturer, even just LOOKING at the bike might have been enough to make one stop and do a little research on what the kid was getting into. was it a casual walk past the new bike in the garage and a "Yes, that's very pretty honey. You'll be careful, right?"
if the kid had been racing for six years as stated, and the mom was at the very least, semi-involved, i would hope she would have seen the alarms going off in her head when the sport bike showed up. take any teenager out of a VW bug and hand him a high performance car...what do you think is gonna happen?

when one of my teenagers came home with a paintball gun, i knew nothing about them. i did the research and though it was a weak, entry-level little popper, that kid wasn't allowed to use it until all the proper protective gear was worn, and in an approved paintball place. NOT the backyard in shorts and sandals, shooting it out with buddies (which was his initial idea).

again, sorry for the kid, feel bad for the mom, but i still think it's possible that situations like these can often be avoided if the parents were more involved (or at the least, knowledgeable) about what their kids are doing, along with who and what they're doing it with.