Earlier this week there was a horrible accident on the beltway that goes around Washington DC.  A police cruiser spotted a black "crotch rocket" that may have been involved in a felony.  A chase ensued on the left lane of the inside loop of the highway.  The bike cut right and the car it was passing slammed on the breaks.  The cruiser nailed the car from behind sending it over the median and onto oncoming traffic.  7 car accident, 2 dead, 15 injured.  A horrible horrible accident.

I am not going to defend the biker- he may have been a felon and definately ran from the cops.  But now the outrage has risen to the degree that MD lawmakers are talking about banning "crotch rockets" from public streets.  Here is a link: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1154314

here is a quote:

"They are potential death machines in the wrong hands," says Delegate Bill Bronrott of Montgomery County. "I think we should look at the possibility of saying, 'Hey, these are only intended for recreational use and should be used on race courses rather than on public highways."


If you go into the read comments area you will see the degree of outrage in the community - some folks even going as far as threatening all bikers they see on the road.  This is really f@$ked up. 

No one has said the accident was caused by poor high speed chase technique.

On a seperate subject, there were thousands of bikes in the area last weekend for Rolling Thunder.  It was really neat.  Unfortunately there were quite a few single vehicle fatal accidents as well.  Unknown curves, speed, trees and medians - disaster.

Well the way I see it.The Police Shouldn't Start these High Speed Pursuits in the Middle of Public.I saw where 2 Cruisers Collided the other Day Killing a Kid.

or know when to call it off, or bring in the bird

YEAH FTP!!!!! 

Get real the cop was trying to do his job the whole article is assinine, uneducated and biased.

It's a tragedy for the family and friends of those who died but the duck on the bike is the one responsible for this loss of life.

If you can't afford to pay get the f%$k off the bike. Be a man and toke your medicine don't run like a chicken shaZam! and get people hurt and give me a bad image.

Yep I ride like a hooligan, not in town or in traffic though. As soon as I see red and blues I shut it down and usually get treated ok but dicks like this give me a bad image.

Uhh...the biker isnt responsible.  He was wrong in running, but he didn't cause the accident.  The police should have not chased him. 

bingo!!!!!!!  the cops were in the wrong    when I'm f%$king off I tend to pull over and be real nice if I'm stopped.  I'll get out of the ticket later, why give him grief for doin his job hell most the time if your nice they let ya off anyway

Give it a while, and the sh*tstorm will die down again.

This happens every few years somewhere in america: a sportbike chase ends with deadly consequences and a lawmaker uses the fear inspired by the tragedy to get some face-time with the media and to show themselves in action as a politician.

Circumstances of this particular incident aside, to quote one of the posters on the story page, a ban would be "knee-jerk socialism" at its best.  I sincerely hope that in the final analysis, cooler heads will prevail and people will realize two things:

1. if you ban "bullet bikes" (whatever they are), where do you draw the line?  I-4? V-twin? Horsepower?  Top speed?  Plastic? What about standards? cruisers? sportscars?  If you put the right to chose which vehicles are on the road in the hands of the state, there is no telling how far it will go.  and once you give that right up, it is exceedingly difficult to get back.

2. Whatever gets banned, the dumbasses of the world will just swing their leg over the next fastest thing they can get and keep killing themselves and others.

T*

this is why i love texas !  if the chase gets to be 110+ the cops can NOT  go  any more unless they have the ok from the boss man . they do this to cut down one what has happen in your state . maybe this needs to spread .  you may think this is going to up on the running from cops ... its not .. its protecting the people that are on there daily 9-5 jobs

Last year in NY a biker was speeding on the highway 100mph+ and a cop going the otherway observed him, pulled a u-turn (in the tree lined median) and started to pursue him. The cop eventually lost control of his car and crashed and died. They later on found the kid from his plate number, arrested him, and charged him with the murder of the cop. The kid didn't even know the cop was back there....Running is a big no no here in NY now. It's an automatic felony. They'll always try to blame it on someone else....especially bikers..

For those not familiar with PG county, MD.  allow me to elaborate:

PGPD is the closest thing the mid-Atlantic has to the LAPD.  The are many in number, deal with one of the most difficult areas to enforce (the famous I-95 drug corridor and the consensus worst crime county in the DC area).  They make traffic stops in packs, chase down drug dealers on a daily basis, and are notorious for being extremely aggressive.

I'm not making any judgments here, I'm only saying that they may have the most difficult law enforcement assignment in the area (district cops included) and the force has reacted by becoming aggressive and uncompromising with anyone or anything they perceive to be a criminal element. 

Who knows how much crime or loss of life they deter using this philosophy over the years, but in this specific case it backfired big-time.

It is sad that public officials in the situation will be incapable (or unwilling) to look at the situation with objectivity.  Nobody wants to hear that everyone involved had some degree of fault in the situation.  It is more comforting to hear that one bad man or one bad machine did it all, and he or it will be taken off the streets 

My heartfelt condolences go out to those who were killed.  I hope their families receive some semblance of justice before it is all over.

Quote from: vtlion on June 02, 2007, 03:17:43 AM
Give it a while, and the sh*tstorm will die down again.

This happens every few years somewhere in america: a sportbike chase ends with deadly consequences and a lawmaker uses the fear inspired by the tragedy to get some face-time with the media and to show themselves in action as a politician.

Circumstances of this particular incident aside, to quote one of the posters on the story page, a ban would be "knee-jerk socialism" at its best.  I sincerely hope that in the final analysis, cooler heads will prevail and people will realize two things:

1. if you ban "bullet bikes" (whatever they are), where do you draw the line?  I-4? V-twin? Horsepower?  Top speed?  Plastic? What about standards? cruisers? sportscars?  If you put the right to chose which vehicles are on the road in the hands of the state, there is no telling how far it will go.  and once you give that right up, it is exceedingly difficult to get back.

2. Whatever gets banned, the dumbasses of the world will just swing their leg over the next fastest thing they can get and keep killing themselves and others.

Quoted for truth.  Another factor to consider is the multi-million dollar civil liability the City has now incurred to the families of the victims.  It is in the City's best interest to crucify the biker in the media and downplay the reckless, negligent action by the officer as much as possible.  Hence the vague reference to a suspected felony and the demonization of "evil" sportbikes.  Anything that can be said or done at this point to deflect the anger of the victims' families away from the City will save money when a settlement is reached.

The rule, pretty much, is that if you hit someone from behind, you're at fault.  You are responsible for the front of your vehicle.  The cop hit the car from behind.  The cop was at fault, regardless of who he was chasing or why.  The biker is a giant duck whose greatest service to society will be when he's no longer a part of it, but that doesn't change who was at fault in the collision. 

And a Datsun B210 is a Potential Death Machine in the hands of the wrong person. 

&

go to bronrotts website and read his list of accomplishments
hes just some yuppie shitface from bethesda who wants everybody to be stuck up pussies like himself

I just don't understand these police chases you have over there in america. You see it on the news and tv etc all the time, 1 car running chased by 10 or 11 cops at high speed on freeways etc.. Here in england if someones is being pursued and it looks like it is going to turn nasty, i.e traffic is busy, there isn't a good place to stop the escaping vehicle or the chase is escalating, the pursuiing 2 or 3 cars which is all that you tend to get in england, they back off and let a helicopter chase the car and they just follow the directions of the helicoptor and stop the car when the situation is safer again. And in a serious case they will call of the pursuit altogether. You very very rarely get more than 3 cars chasing one fugitive and if there are 3 cars the helicoptor is usually there advising them all.

yeah we are pretty much fuckin idiots about a lot of stuff over here

343

i agree.   with all of the technology we have today I find it difficult to believe that traditional pursuit is the only option when someone flees.


http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/article.php?ID=8807

"The new GPS gum balls are simple in concept. A tiny GPS transmitter is hidden in the center of a sticky compound that looks somewhat like a golf ball. Police units in Los Angeles will shoot the GPS gum balls at fleeing vehicles. If the ball sticks, then police can back off the high-speed pursuit and track the cars using GPS monitoring equipment. Using such tactics, police may be able to place obstacles much further in front of the vehicles' path to slow them down or stop them safely, rather than having to chase the vehicle in and out of the city, potentially causing property damage and even civilian injuries."

^thats what I'm taking about. 

although I don't know how likely the technology is to be used in a situation involving a motorcycle, because of the risk of a crash.

FTP

All i can say