Crotch Rockets Are 'Potential Death Machines' - real headline

[Gofer]

1st off-- Politicians lie. Especially if it gets them time in the media so it looks like they're doing something for their constituents.

#2-- The comments from ABATE were right on.

#3-- The biker quite possibly was quite possibly at some fault, but how can they be sure it was the right bike if the cop never got his tag #?? And he may not have known they were chasing him: A friend of mine from England, former undercover motorbike cop, came over to visit one time. Was speeding, but couldn't hear the siren behind him(needed a new muffler, but sirens are difficult to hear anyway, judging by the fact that a lot of people fail to pull over for ambulances). The cops set up a roadblock, and once they found out why he hadn't stopped, they let him go.

and #4-- When I went through EMT school, we were taught a little bit about driving. One of the first things we were told was that if we were involved in an accident, even if we had lights and sirens on, even if the wreck was technically the other person's fault, we would almost certainly STILL BE AT FAULT to some degree. The courts take a very dim view of public safety personnel taking risks with municipal vehicles, even when on a call, due to the fact that their profession is public safety.

I hope they catch the guy, if it was the guy who committed the supposed felony. I hope that cop realises that it was, indeed, his own fault that two people died. And I hope there isn't some knee-jerk reaction from the bureaucrats(and the oh-so-innocent public) who would like nothing more than to punish all motorcyclists.

[scratch]

I'm just going to conjecture an extreme situation where bikes were banned and we're all driving our cars in conjested traffic for hours on end, and I can see myself at the watercooler saying in a loud voice, "If we were only allowed to ride motorcycles it wouldn't take everybody three hours to get to work...".  "Global warming is on the rise..."

[jserio]

exactly. the type of vehicle he was in/on should have no relavence to the situation. i drive a 1994 Plymouth Sundance to work. now, if this driver had been in a car similar to mine would they be screaming for the banning of all Plymouth Sundances? i bet if you posed this question to the politicians they would say no, that's an outrageous idea. so is the notion of banning certain bikes.  no machine, car, bike, gun etc is any danger to any person if it's just sitting there all by itself. it takes a person to operate it improperly for it to be a danger to someone.

[linuxman2003]

exactly. the type of vehicle he was in/on should have no relavence to the situation. i drive a 1994 Plymouth Sundance to work. now, if this driver had been in a car similar to mine would they be screaming for the banning of all Plymouth Sundances? i bet if you posed this question to the politicians they would say no, that's an outrageous idea. so is the notion of banning certain bikes.  no machine, car, bike, gun etc is any danger to any person if it's just sitting there all by itself. it takes a person to operate it improperly for it to be a danger to someone.

too bad everyone doesnt realize that and quit trying to blame everyone but the person that caused the incident.... I'm sticking to me theory of "people are stupid... and getting stupider by the minute." argument. Harsh I know... but darn it there are some REAL morons running around out there that need to prove the "survival of the fittest" idea. SOON.

[Unnamed]

exactly. the type of vehicle he was in/on should have no relavence to the situation. i drive a 1994 Plymouth Sundance to work. now, if this driver had been in a car similar to mine would they be screaming for the banning of all Plymouth Sundances? i bet if you posed this question to the politicians they would say no, that's an outrageous idea. so is the notion of banning certain bikes.  no machine, car, bike, gun etc is any danger to any person if it's just sitting there all by itself. it takes a person to operate it improperly for it to be a danger to someone.

Some vehicles attract more dangerous people (sportbikes). Those people make their own decisions, but as a whole the faster machines (car or bike) will be chosen by the dangerous people and will acquire a reputation. People crash literbikes all the time because the dangerous people can afford them. If Porsches or Corvettes were as cheap you bet your ass those drivers would be dying just as often. It's sad when people die because of their ignorance, but what we need is for new riders to spend some time learning before they bought their sportbikes. Maybe they'd learn how not to kill themselves before they actually had the opportunity to.