Drunk Drivers in North Pierce County

Northern Pierce County seems to have a bit of a problems with drunk drivers hitting motorcyclists and speeding off.

Two Junes in a row there have been high-profile DUI injury accidents where a motorcyclist is struck and critically injured by an obviously uncaring drunk driver.

Alcohol suspected in hit-and-run crash (Courtesy of Komotv.com)

PUYALLUP - State troopers arrested a man Tuesday night who they say was likely drunk when he ran over a motorcyclist before speeding off.Trooper Mark Lewis said the 39-year-old Buckley man was eastbound on Highway 512 in Puyallup when he struck a motorcyclist near the Pioneer Way exit just before 8 p.m., trapping the man underneath his Ford Taurus.

The motorcycle burst into flames and the rider was dragged more than 200 feet down the highway for before the driver stopped briefly and then sped off, leaving the motorcyclist lying in the road on fire, Lewis said.

Disgusting incident really, and sadly all too common. Yet another in-duh-vidual who needs to spend 5-10 years in the pokey.

Killer Karma

While I rarely link to forums, this is the only place I've found anything about this incident. And while I also rarely post stories of this type, anyone who's ever had their pride and joy stolen would most likely understand the irony implicit in this sequence of events.

1. Thief steals late-90s VFR in the morning.


2. Runs around joyriding all day.


3. Takes it out on Green Valley Road.


4. Thief hits something.


5. Thief totals bike and splatters himself all over the pavement.


6. Thief gets airlifted to Harborview Trauma Center.

Talk about stupid criminals. Sheesh.

(Courtesy of tedder)

Motorcycle Accidents

The commute this morning was beastly for a number of reasons.

1. The weather's nice and more motorcycles are out on the road.


2. The weather's nice and more cagers are driving the car instead of taking the bus.


3. The weather's nice so those people who don't work are heading out for a day of sunshine and getting stuck in rush-hour traffic.

This recipe presents a problem.

The sunshine recreational drivers getting out in the rush-hour traffic is a major problem. They're not used to dealing with extremely heavy traffic, and they often lack the degree of focus necessary to maintain lane position, merge smoothly, and not run into the person preceding them while doing shoulder checks.
On the other hand, you have a group of professional cage-commuters who are upset that their commute is taking so much longer today than planned. They're cranky, irritable, and prone to road-rage inciting stupidity whenever anyone cuts them off.
On the third, you have a lot of re-entering motorcycle who've pushed motorcycle sales sky-high this year and whose skills may not be quite up to snuff for moto-commuting.

This is a bad combination, and I noticed 4 accidents on the way in to work. The worst was the first, down in Auburn, where a WSP investigation has one of the merge zones diverted. There was a Kawasaki cruiser involved, and while the bike wasn't in too bad of a shape, there was a disturbing amount of cut gear and clothing laying beside the bike as it was parked in the middle of the lane. I fear that the rider may not have made it.

Another one was on I-405, where a station-wagon had rear-ended another car. The compression of the frame was significant, and without airbags I'm sure the driver would've been much more seriously injured.

In short, take it easy and keep it real, folks. Cagers can be frighteningly stupid and it's no lie, but let them go be stupid to someone else and get yourself out of the situation in whatever fashion in necessary.

Chase the Snake 2006

WARNING: SLIGHTLY GORY PHOTO BELOW!!!
This past weekend, I attended a motorcycle event and dinner hosted by the John and Chris Thompson, a wonderful couple who live over in extreme Eastern Washington.

I rode out there on Friday, and while I endured a tremendous thunderstorm around North Bend and wet gear and high winds the rest of the way there, I had a good inbound trip.

I stayed in Pullman at the American Motor Inn, an inexpensive and very clean motel on Grand Ave. in Pullman. There, after having a brief meal at the Thompson's on Friday, I was greeted by many of my good friends. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

On Saturday, we met at the Old European breakfast diner in Pullman and absolutely ate ourselves silly. I had a very large platter of home fries and two Eggs Benedict. We all went over to pick up a very good friends of ours who lives there in Pullman, one of the co-founders of the CtS events, and he rode on the back of one of the motorcycles with us, as he's sadly no longer able to ride his own motorcycle.

We rode a bunch of great roads during our trip: Wawawai Grade Rd., Wawawai Canyon Road, WA SR193, the Spiral Highway, US 12 through to Orofino, Wells-Bench Road, Orofino-Elk River Road (23 miles of gravel!), and Idaho Highways 3 & 8.

Spiral Highway: (Courtesy of Pete Moss)

I really enjoyed the Spiral Highway, and we rode in as a group to Orofino for an extremely-slow lackluster lunch at some strange burger joint. I soon discovered myself being talked into riding some gravel up to Elk River, although I'm sure I didn't quite grasp that there was 23 miles of that stuff to get through. I did get to ride on a very wierd suspension bridge out in the middle of nowhere.

Now don't get me wrong. Idaho's a wonderful place full of wonderful people. But there's not that many people and a whole lot of gravel roads. Yet they put in a 3-400 foot long two-tower suspension bridge over the Dworshak Reservoir. Very wierd.

We rode in to Elk River for the famous Huckleberry Pie and Ice Cream. I enjoyed it immensely (they even warmed it up for us), but some of the others said it kinda lackluster. I dunno, but after battling 23 miles of gravel (some of it loose!) for the better part of an hour, it tasted absolutely fantastic.

We expected to meet some other folks in Elk River, but unfortunately one of the guys on the pavement group (I was with the 4-bike gravel crew) hit a deer a few miles out from Elk River. The deer was put out of commision right quickly by Joe's Concours, and surprisingly Joe walked away with just a couple scrapes and a few bruises. Something to be said for wearing good gear.

What's left after Joe hit a rather small deer: (Pete Moss)



Once our host and Joe's wife came out to pick up the bike with a flatbed trailer, we all followed and headed back to John's house for a wonderful meal.

Biker Scum: (Pete Moss)



On Sunday morning, I got up quite early and had a pleasant time talking with a couple fellow riders before gassing up and heading west via some backroads that are collectively referred to as the (North) Inner Passage. This route goes between SR26 and I-90 all the way from Mockonema (4 mi west of Colfax) and goes all the way to just east of Vantage. While this route isn't the fastest, it's far more interesting than droning along on 26.

This route goes past the Potholes Reservoir, one of the more stark dichotomies I've come across recently. One side of a fairly deep bluewater river reservoir, and 28 feet away and down an embankment is typical Central Washington dark-brown desert scrubland and sagebrush. A very strange feeling.

Wet: (courtesy of Pete Moss)


Dry: (Courtesy of Pete Moss)


I met up with a couple old friends who caught up to me around the lovely Potholes Reservoir (I'd left 20 minutes before them), and I joined them in a blitz home.

I had much fun and put 834 miles on the bike from Bellevue on Friday to Idaho and back home. As I fired the bike up this morning to go in to work, the Red Menace dutifully reported that it had 2298 miles on the odo. Looks like it'll be oil change time by next Monday.

Road Hazard of the Day: June 8, 2006

Yes, I know I haven't posted one of these in quite awhile. Today's particular road hazard technically falls under the catch-all of unsecured loads.

I saw a surprising amount of detritus here and there along the roadside today, including large chunks of what must have been either firewood or tree removal service detritus. Namely, large chunks of bark and cross-section of branches lying in odd spots in the road.

Hitting one of those is as bad a hitting a big rock, and will just as surely dent that expensive cast metal front wheel on your average streetbike.

Diesel

There's been plenty of stories out there about diesel spills. I've always taken diesel spills quite seriously, but to now had never been in an adverse situation because of such a spill.

Today I got inducted into the diesel survivor's club.

I was almost to work this morning, taking the freeway exit just a few blocks from my office. The light was almost at the end of the green, so I was on the gas and leaning it over pretty hard to zip across the intersection, when I saw it.

Hiding behind a ripple in the pavement was a very fresh, 8" diesel slick that was about 100 feet long. The back end slid around quite nicely, with the v-twin and the TrailWings behaving more linearly and predictably (more due to the v-twin than the DeathWings).

I'm actually rather glad I hit that one when I did. It gave me the presence of mind to look out for more, enabling me to avoid the 15'(3m) wide one about about 4 blocks later. THAT one required some creative maneuvering.