Here's another news story, and this one is just too close to home...


My friends in or around Utah may have seen this story on the news. Watch the video, and especially take notice of the truck...

It may look familiar to some of you...

Wow FR - that truck looks way too familiar!

My heart goes out to the family... especially the three young kids...

That is truly sad indeed. 3 kids and a wife and dead at 34. Man that sucks!

What did the DOT drug and alcohol tests show on the driver of the truck? Hope your buddy paid his insurance premiums and that his policy limit is over $1,000,000 cause the claim is going to be huge.

I'm guessing that alcohol/drugs were not a factor. I'm guessing that given the size of the semi rig, that the driver was going too fast to be able to stop safely, or, just thought that he'd be better off going through the light, or was just not paying attention. I feel bad for all parties involved, more for the victim who perished of course.

Comments above are right on track. Sad for all. The 25-yr old driving the semi is in deep pookey right now. With witnesses who say the motorcyclist had the green light, it's going to be bad for the trucker.

Doesn't look like the truck ran over the motorcycle, just bumped into it.

Sympathies to all involved.

I do always like to analyze an accident like this.

1. Motorcyclist riding to work - probably to save gas, instead lost his life.
2. Appears to be a "cruiser style" motorcycle - Victory maybe - was the rider wearing a helmet.
3. Appears to be relatively light impact - which makes me think the motorcyclist died from injuries suffered when he hit the ground, rather than the impact.
4. If it was light impact - it would have been a fender-bender if he had been in a car.


Lessons learned:

1. Don't ride a motorcycle to work to save gas. Buy a Toyota Corolla.
2. Be especially careful these days because people are riding motorcycles to work.

Sadly, 'not paying attention' is the likely reason, and being a motorcycle rider, I have to apply that to both of them. I was told: The truck stopped in 50', even loaded, so the truck's speed shouldn't have been a factor. What may have been a factor is the large sun visor on the truck. Insurance shouldn't be a problem. Exactly if, and how green the light actually was is in question. A lot of investigating will be taking place...

That's about all that I know for sure.

As an aside, how superstitious should I be? I started a thread about boat name-changing and I why maybe I shouldn't....LBS's good friends, who I had the pleasure of meeting and spending a day with, lose their lives on their Goldwing--I drive a Goldwing...and now, another motorcycle rider dies after colliding into my friend and the very truck that's in my signature photo below. They say things come in three's...if ever there was a "number three", I seem to be in prime position!

OK, I looked again. Motorcycle is Harley - unless Utah is a helmet state, I guarantee there was no motorcycle helmet being worn.

Looks like the impact was harder than I thought, due to the bent front bumper of the truck, however the truck is stopped about 40 feet past the intersection, so it wasn't going very fast when it hit the MC. Motorcycle isn't very damaged at all.

My bet is the motorcyclist either hit his head on the truck during the impact or on the ground after the impact. Either way, truckdriver is going to be blamed.

Folks, if you're going to ride a motorcycle, at least put a helmet on.

Was reported on the news he WAS wearing a helmet...

I always fear for my life while riding. I've been on 2 wheeled vehicle's since I was 9, and I've highway ridden bikes for 32 years so far. And I readily admit that I took a several-year hiatus from riding after becoming wary of dodging idiots in cars & trucks. I've since found that big (full-dress Goldwings etc) and/or loud (straightpiped Harley's) are a cyclist's best friend.

With all due respect to the victim, and speaking strictly as a rider, I'm not sure why he didn't/couldn't see the truck coming. But I realize that's not always going to change the end result.

Tragic.

Anyone else find this statement from his employer kinda weird?

"He was probably the most dedicated guy that I knew with his job, with the underlying pretense that he was supporting his family."

I used to love motorcycles - I've grown afraid of driving one ... age maybe ... so vulnerable ... so many inattentive drivers ...

That's surprising.

Wonder how he died then? The impact couldn't have been that hard. Possible ruptured aorta, but again that would take a pretty good impact.

Also it's possible that the helmet he was wearing was a non DOT approved one - some of those are just about like wearing nothing.

Tragic story for sure. I'm not one to analyze accident scenes and try to speculate.. just sad for everyone involved.

Changing name on boats.... when we changed the name of the sailboat I worked on, we had a Hawaiian Kahuna come and bless her... perhaps FR, should you really want to rename your craft, consider a similar ceremony using a local priest, pastor, etc.. just to be safe!

Looks like a HD Duece to me however the make and model of the bike is not the important part.

I may have mentioned this before, my wife asks why I don't ride my motorcycle to work more often and I tell her that I would rather drive the truck which gets 14 mpg and have a better chance of coming home at night then ride the bike that gets 40+ mpg and risk not coming home.

I couldn't hear the clip as my computer doesn't have that option.

The motorcyclist should also be responsible..just because the light turns green doesn't mean he can go. Regardless of what is transporting you, you need to make sure that the coast is clear. I am not sure if the light just turned from red to green or was green for a long time before the motorcyclist came to the intersection. The truck is a big truck and probably makes some noise with those two stacks. Regardless, still sad to see a fellow rider die.

The right upright of the grille is dented as are some of the bars of the grille, that is too high to have impacted the bike. That is where the rider hit the truck

As far as the cycle being at fault, I highly doubt it. It looks to me like it's a large intersection of two 4 lane streets with left turn lanes. It also appears that the semi truck was in the left lane of his direction of travel. So, if the cycle was in his curb lane, his view would have been blocked by stopped traffic to his left and also by the traffic to the truck's right. Unfortunately an accident that happens 100s of time across the country. Just fatal in this case.

That is sad.

This is a perfect example why I check traffic when I get a green (way too many red light renegades around here) and why I gave up the MC years ago. Just a preference thing, not making any ascertations.

It's a loud truck for sure. It was brought up that the victim was/may have been(?) hard of hearing. If you notice, the truck came to rest barely past the intersection. Gary said his speed was estimated at 30 mph. Hard to say which Rob saw first, the red light or the Harley, but it seems he had to have seen one or the other and hit the brakes well before the impact. I'm pretty sure he couldn't stop all that weight in that short of distance had the impact been "a surprise".

I agree with everyone that it seems like a fairly slow crash, maybe the victim's neck was broken...

Thank you WM.

I won't try to figure out what happened in an accident which I didn't see. It is such a tragic loss. Maybe preventable, maybe not.

I do too, however I see many motorcyclists who don't. If I can't see, I'll also wait for a car or truck to enter the intersection first, in order to "block" me from any traffic I can't see - that doesn't guarantee safety, but other drivers are much more likely to see a car/truck than see me on my MC.

I also agree with Billy that this is the kind of accident that occurs hundreds of times a day - just in this case ended badly.

Same here. I rode a Gold Wing for many years but after two close calls I sold it. I figured my bones aren't as young as they used to be and probably won't mend as quickly as they might have.

What it boiled down to was a risk/reward analysis of riding....I decided the risk was greater than the reward.

Sorry to hear yet another sad story, Sympathies to both families.

Some updates on this accident...

1- I stand corrected---The victim was NOT wearing a helmet.

2- At the place where this accident took place, they are doing some sort of road work. Just beyond the intersection is another set of traffic lights to do with entering the freeway, and people have been complaining about these. The reason, is because the road is on a slight down-hill toward the freeway, and when approaching the intersections, it's hard to tell which light is which, and as you roll downhill they "change positions". They're not synchronized in any way, either. For example, if your sun visor is down while approaching the intersections, the closer traffic light will rise up beyond the visor and out of your point of view, leaving the WRONG traffic light visible. If you check your mirrors or look away for any reason for a split second, you may not notice you "lost" the light. This was taken into consideration...

3- Several witnesses stated that the victim drove around a car parked in front of him to enter the intersection.

4- Contrary to popular belief (have you read comment blog in that story? The sheer number of 'professional accident investigators' blogging is astounding) the truck was NOT speeding (his speed was estimated at 35 mph or less, limit is 45), he was not overweight (someone mentioned 110,000#, I guess they didn't bother to look at the load in the video, a bobcat and a flatbed truck), Rob was in no way impaired, and the truck was not in any disrepair.

5- Due in part to the above circumstances, there will be no charges filed or any other action taken against Rob.

And maybe most importantly, the victim's family is at peace with this.

Be safe, everyone...

Thanks for the update, really clears things up.

Thank you very much for the comprehensive update. Sounds like some mistakes were made all around. Sad that someone had to die. May he rest in peace, his family be blessed and Rob have his mind eased, if just a little.

Thanks for the update. I was just wondering today how things worked out. I hope for the best for both parties.

So real vile comments on the story over there, FR.

A bike rider is dead, and a truck driver that probably wishes HE was dead.

Sad story.

Thanks for the update. I hate that your friend had to go through this. I know we can all get too comfortable with our environment and have things happen. Sounds like that is the case here. As with most accidents it is a series of events that add up. If any one of several things were absent from that scenario the outcome would surely have been different.

Hopefully he can take some comfort knowing the family is accepting the outcome of the investigation.