Jen,
My 21 year old grandson just had a motorcycle wreck and broke his leg. He had surgery 4 times thus far trying to make things right. They can be dangerous. I think you mentioned that about your dad once before to me. That’s quite sad.
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> On Apr 8, 2017, at 11:06 AM, Jenifer Barr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Phil, that's horrible. Sorry, not sure what else to say. I hate
> motor cycles. My father was killed on one. A car swerved into his
> lane right in front of him just so he could pull into his driveway.
> My dad tried to drop the bike and jump out of the way but the guy was
> coming to fast.
> Jen
>
>
> On 4/7/17, Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> This happened over a year ago. I just put the finishing touches on it and
>> decided to send it out.
>>
>>
>> I was checking the light switch in the dining room on my way to bed, Sunday
>> night, It was about 11:30 PM. I heard a loud crunch and then something
>> that sounded like metal being dragged on the pavement in front of our house.
>> I soon heard the gunning of an engine and I figured someone had dropped
>> their muffler and was dragging it down the road and trying to pull over.
>> Our son leaves a hundred feet behind us and he was still up and heard it,
>> too. We live about 100 feet from the street and it is a very busy
>> north/south 4-lane road that is heavily traveled. We have had many wrecks
>> of cars and trucks during the 32 years we have lived in this house.
>>
>> Once, a runaway driverless van came rolling down the hill from the gas
>> station a 150 feet to the south of our front door. The driver had been
>> working on his engine with it running when the van slipped into gear, ran
>> over him, dragging him 50 or 60 feet, and then, leaving in an empty field
>> next-door to us, crashed into our concrete front porch. It fortunately
>> rammed the porch on the corner with the thickest amount of concrete sticking
>> up, about 18 inches, which kept the whole van from running up on to the
>> porch and right into our picture window. My youngest grandson, about 6
>> years old at the time, and I were walking together passed the window when
>> the van hit. One wheel rose up on our porch and knocked down a iron support
>> post designed to hold up that corner of the overhanging roof. It felt like
>> an earthquake and the boom it made sound like a jet breaking the sound
>> barrier. The first to arrive on the scene was a firetruck with paramedics
>> to tend to the injured man laying in the field next door to our property.
>> The van engine was still running when the police arrive in about a dozen
>> police cars. An ambulance loaded the unconscious man aboard and took him to
>> the hospital. Fortunately, we sustained no damage to the house and the
>> firemen, using a sludge hammer, pounded our support post back into place.
>> And to think I almost bolted the iron support into the concrete once. The
>> roof would have caved in on that corner of the overhang if I had done so.
>> There is more to that story but you have heard enough to realize that we
>> live on a busy street and have witnessed many wrecks and crashes, as well as
>> other things, such as shootings, and the like. So Sunday night was no
>> different overall.
>>
>> Our son told us the rest of the story Monday during a cookout at our
>> daughter’s house. Two motorcycle gang members were riding their bikes at a
>> high rate of speed and coming north toward our house. About 200 to 250 feet
>> to the south of our front door is the corner of an intersection. There is a
>> stoplight there but it is a manual light. That means, when my kids went to
>> school across the street years ago, they would push a button and the light
>> would change to red and stop all the traffic. If there are no pedestrians,
>> the button is not pressed, so the traffic sees green all the time unless
>> someone is trying to cross the street. Anyhow, I got carried away but I am
>> trying to explain what it is like living on a busy street. Back to the
>> story.
>>
>> The two motorcycles came roaring at a high rate of speed going north but you
>> could easily hear their racing engines more than a block away. A Car was
>> just turning east at the intersection. Why the bikes did not slow down is a
>> mystery but the didn’t. They possibly could not slow quick enough do to
>> their high rate of speed. The tail end of the car was still partly in the
>> intersection when the lead motorcycle rammed the back of the car and slid
>> by; crunching the bumper and trunk of the car. The biker had a girl wearing
>> just a helmet, for protection,, on the back of the bike. In other words,
>> she was not wearing any leather jacket or pants or leather protective
>> gloves in case of a crash. The motorcycle laid down and slid for 100 feet,
>> the girl falling off the back but the driver trapped under the bike. Such
>> enhanced motorcycles can weigh anywhere from 500 to 750 pounds. My sons
>> Honda 1000, for example, weighs 650 pounds and a Honda Gold Wing weighs 750.
>> These gang style bikes, or club motorcycles, are often stripped bikes, and
>> built up engines but they still weigh several hundred pounds. The crashed
>> motorcycle, with its driver, slid from the intersection, clear to our
>> mailbox at on the edge of the street which is on the north corner of my
>> property line. He was killed instantly. Our son saw the other biker as
>> he rode back and forth and taking pictures of his dead friend. I don’t know
>> if this was being done for legal purposes or not but they later tried
>> blaming the driver of the car who was just turning the corner. For a bike
>> to slide 200 feet, you can’t be doing the 35 to 40 mile per hour speed limit
>> on that street. My son estimates they were doing 90 Miles Per Hour when
>> they crashed. The biker who was killed lay in the street and my son said
>> his helmet face plate was crushed down into his face. Everett also said the
>> biker may have tried driving out of the fall, that is, speeding up to try
>> and center the bike but it was already tilted too far over to recover. The
>> girl was still alive when they put her into the ambulance . He thinks she
>> may have fallen off the back of the motorcycle closer to the crash so she
>> wasn’t dragged as far as the bike driver. Soon, the gas station was filled
>> with dozens of bikers watching the traffic police working the scene.
>>
>> Monday night, the biker gang return to the scene for several hours. They
>> rode their bikes up and down the street, about 100 of them stood around at
>> the gas station next door. Others rode their bikes to the spot where the
>> guy had lain in the street, stopped, revved their engines to an ear
>> splitting pitch, and then did a burn out. This is when the engines are run
>> to a high revolution and the breaks set so the bike cannot move. The
>> breaks are then release and the back wheel spins, burning rubber off the
>> tire until the tire finally catches. Then the bike burns away at high
>> speed. Other times several pulled up to our mailbox where their buddy had
>> died and just cranked their engine to high speed over and over again. Some
>> people got off their bikes and blocked traffic. We were one of those.
>> Coming home from our daughters cookout, we got into the middle of the
>> traffic jam in front of our house. Our son said some of the people were
>> holding lighted candles. As I said, the bikers were slowing and blocking
>> traffic by dismounting their bikes and walking in front of cars that had to
>> stop while others just parked and sat crossways on their bikes; all to let
>> people know they were mourning the death of one of their own. I lost my
>> ability to smell years ago but Sandy said the smell of burning rubber almost
>> made her sick. They conducted their burn outs less than 100 feet from our
>> front door and they still do burn outs in that same spot to this day when
>> driving back, day or night, more than a year later.
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