There was a group of motorcyclists speeding at 75N at Northside Dr. GSP chased them into Cobb County where one of the riders went too fast into a turn and killed himself and his female rider at Canton Rd. http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=116582&catid=3 Be smart and be safe out there guys!
Sad, also did you read the last part. "Another male motorist who stopped at the scene to ask troopers what was going on was arrested and charged with DUI after they noticed alcohol on his breath."
It truly saddens me to hear this seeing that my baby got bought her first bike...an 08 gsxr... Lord please keep her safe...
Why wouldn't they? If that were the case anyone wanting to commit a crime would just go get a motorcycle..... these guys are finding out they can't get away from the Chargers nearly as easliy as they could the Crown Vics..... That said, idiots like this give everyone who rides sportbikes a bad image..... I feel bad for the families of the deceased, and for his passenger who may or may not have been a willing participant, but barring that it's just one less squid to worry about.....
That is interesting. There is a GSP officer who lives in my apartment complex and his Charger (black with the orange lettering) just looks plain MEAN.
Chalk another one up for Darwin. I would be more sympathetic, but it seems like the guys doing this on the freeway are well past their juvenille years.
how much power do these chargers have, any different than the regular ones besides a stronger cooling system I would assume?
Still being a no contest situation all they are effectively doing is pushing the speed threshold higher because the charger can "hang" just a bit longer. get the tags, radio ahead... but DON'T raise the threshold of the way "out". you and i both know nothing outruns radio, or visiting their house after getting the tag number. i'm not saying the biker was right, i'm saying the pursuing officer's judgement was off if he was trying to catch up to them.
I just don't get this argument that somehow the law enforcement officer is culpable in this or events like this. Guy breaks law, guy continues to break law, guy and possibly innocent bystanders die because guy was breaking law. These brainiacs doing 130 on the highway might as well be shooting randomly at cars from the side of the road. I was almost side swiped on 285 with my wife and daughter in the car. If that guy had hit us, going as fast as he was, all of us would have been lucky to be alive. A vehicle is just as much a weapon when used improperly as anything else.
I agree 100%. I think that the officer had every right, and responsibility to try and stop the biker before he ended up killing someone completely uninvolved.
One thing for sure if you speed or commit a traffic offense you will eventually get caught, at least in Roswell. The unfortunate thing is, at least in Roswell, you have so much manpower dedicated to revenue generating law enforcement, that high crime areas like the one my girlfriend lives in, (She unfortunately purchased at “Holcomb’s Landing” a town home community by Holcomb bridge &400) where over the past five years gang banging, public drug dealing, assault and burglary are an every day event. It is a free for all for criminals. You would be hard pressed to see a cruiser go through once a week. As far as a I can tell the cops put their sirens on and speed the opposite way. We have complained to the mayor, the police chief and have gone to various town hall meetings, bottom line if it doesn’t create revenue you are SOL! In my opinion revenue based law enforcement here is “off the chain”. Crime based law enforcement the true essence of law enforcement, from what I have experienced, is reactive, substandard and leaves law abiding citizens in marginal communities to fend for themselves. That is just my opinion from what I have witnessed in the Roswell area. It could be different elsewhere.
While I agree that the guy was wrong, the bike at 130 mph has about the same kinetic force as a 5500 lb SUV like a Navigator or Tahoe going around 30 mph...that is to say not much. He is a danger to himself MUCH more than to anyone else on the road (barring any passenger he might be carrying). I think a lot of times it comes down to ego with these chases....the whole "he's not gonna get away from me by God" type of thing. The bottom line is that in this instance they had nothing more on the guy than speeding. Had he robbed a bank, murdered someone, raped someone, sure, chase him till the wheels fall off. But for a traffic ticket? Come on, use a little better judgment. When I was a cop we actually had a policy that said just that...only chase for a violent forcible felony. And only chase then if the suspect cannot be apprehended safely at a later time. I have to agree, get the tag if you can, call a chopper, whatever and be waiting at his house. But chasing someone and putting other people's lives at risk over a traffic ticket is a little much. Not only that, but if the officer hits someone in that big old charger at 100 mph, it is GOING to kill someone. Now all this being said, the guy on the sport bike gives all sport bike riders a bad name. If you are going to break the speed limit, man up to it when you are caught and take the ticket. That is the risk. Don't risk your passengers lives for it. Further it makes us have to go through a lot more crap every time we are seen on a bike. I got pulled over the other day for nothing...officer claimed that he did not see my turn signal in a parking lot (from across said huge ass parking lot) and thought I was running without turn signals....bullshit. Turn signals were integrated to the rear tail light, he just saw the crash cage on the side of my bike and knew I stunt and wanted to hassle me. Why? Because of the guys that drive wheelies through rush hour traffic at 100 mph on the freeway. Me personally, I only stunt off road in large parking lots where there is not a car in sight. We do it safe, we do it off road and we do it legally (well mostly...they sometimes complain that we are making too much noise). But, I get lumped into the same category purely based on appearance.
I agree with that 100% My buddies where doing a Mountain Run in NGM on their bikes. They flew by a cop going the opposite way doing a respectable 110mph in a 45mph zone. They saw the cop start to turn around to give chase. They could have possibly gunned it and lost him but they pulled over and waited. Now they go to the track.
Except that you're assuming that the motorcycle actually has a tag..... and how many squids take the rear fender off of the bike and just screw the plate to the undertail? Even if it is clearly displayed, you're talking about an officer, in a stressful situation, at speed, trying to read six digits that are maybe two inches high on a license plate that's the size of your hand..... it's tough, I can attest to that..... I was involved in a pursuit where I was able to get the tag number before I backed off, and then I found the kid outside of his house later..... but that's kind of the exception..... I don't believe the trooper's judgement was off at all, and in fact I would argue very strongly and convincingly that the motorcycle rider was the one who showed poor judgement in this situation.....
It's good to hear so many rational arguments. The biker killing himself & passenger to avoid ticket(s) is both stupid and sad. Keep the rubber side down!
Hitting just right sure....here's one from an SUV..we can argue it all day long and post pictures, but the math won't lie...an SUV has MUCH more kinetic force...so for a basic equation: Motorcycle at 425 lbs (average sport bike) and SUV at 5500 lbs (average tahoe or equivalent) both going 40 mph or 18 meters per second calculated with the formula E= 1/2 M*V where E is total kinetic energy in joules, mass is in kilos and velocity is in meters per second: Total kinetic energy of the bike: 13,824 Joules Total kinetic energy of the SUV: 404,028 joules Sport bike at 130 mph: 322,944 so STILL less than a SUV at 40 mph. Now tell me again that a bike is going to have near the impact that a car or SUV would have at any given speed. Bikes are just an easier target. The same can be said for our cars...they are fast, they LOOK fast and they are capable of high speeds. It is all in how the driver handles the vehicle. But I tell you one thing...I would MUCH rather be hit by a bike in my car than by another car given the same speeds. Based on the formula above a bike doing 130 would be still less than an SUV at 40. It's all in the numbers...but people want to see the hype the media gives to all situations. That soccer mom that is hopped up on pain killers and Anti-depressants is a LOT more dangerous in her 8000 Hummer going 70 mph and weaving in and out of traffic with a baby in the back than the kid on the bike doing 80.
oooh, that reminds me, my accident reconstruction classes at GPSTC start up again next month..... fun times.....
Haha, I went through those same course with the Georgia State Patrol instructor at GPSTC. They really ARE pretty interesting. A lot of guys just have trouble with the math, but it is all pretty basic.
Definitely not arguing the physics, but to say a bike can't hurt someone in a car/truck/suv is a little different. Yes, a bike and car going comparable speeds and hitting something will have differing outcomes, but anything going over 100mph and hitting something will make a significant impact. In my case for instance, traffic was really heavy, about 6 guys on bikes were weaving in and out of traffic at dusk. If he had run into me, I would most likely have gotten hit multiple times by other cars/semis. The point is, a bike can kill if used the wrong way, and not just the person(s) on it at the time. Cops should be able to chase and apprehend people driving ANYTHING like the guys were driving that night. For the record, I consider the "soccer mom" talking on her cell while doing her makeup just as dangerous and just as guilty....
Totally disagree. Most times their chasing will be MORE likely to result in an accident. It has been proven time and again. That is why most agencies have taken up policies to only chase for violent forcible felonies. In a perfect world, yeah, I would agree with you. But honestly, for a traffic offense it just is not worth it. Get cameras up on the highways that can get pictures, something like that, but chasing is not the answer. Honestly most motorcycle accidents that I have worked barely resulted in any damage to the car or truck or SUV and totalled the bike and sent the rider to the hospital...person on 4 wheels...minor bruises mostly. In fact we had one guy DIE and the car was hardly scratched. He glanced off the car at high speed, lost it and his head went under another car. Never had one person in the car go to the hospital from an accident with a motorcycle. This is just my experience.
I'll agree to disagree. I just don't see how implementing a policy that encourages that type of behavior, or at least doesn't punish it, is goin to work. Cameras, UAVs, etc. could be an option but they are not there NOW. Once they are, I am all for a different set of responses, only problem is, those thing would probably also be used to nab me for going 5 over on a deserted road...
guys, i'm not defending the biker's judgement... the biker was fodder at best. of course the biker was at fault both mentally and legally. what i'm saying is that chasing a sport bike that continues to accelerate (with a passenger no less) is a no-contest situation. the outcome is almost a given (death) and the cop should have accepted that. even if it means missing the opportunity of getting him (if no other units could have been radio'd or he couldn't get the tags). and yes we are talking about an officer "under stress and at speed", which doesn't always lead to the best decisions. i'm not saying it was a malicious decision or it wasn't a well-intended decision. the point here is, yes it's a modified interceptor, and yes they won't pull away from him as fast, but raising the bar on a sport bike that is "running" is only raising the speed of the pursuit, not the chances that it will end in a safe recovery of the perp(s). i'm also NOT saying that the officer should be repremanded for his decision. to me it was an reasonable and understandable error in judgement.
I know of some local areas (IE BFE redneck areas with massively dangerous roads at speeds past 100mph) that have a no chase policy for sport bikes. That may have changed as it was about 6 years ago the last time I checked up on that. However, here is the problem: People watch the police chases on TV. They say "oh, thats a mistake I wont make...I can do better than that...look at that idiot! I could get away from that easily!" And they go and do it at some point....but they are the idiots. There there's me...I've seen a lot of those dumb chase shows/vids...then I've played many a 'run from the cops in a car' game. I know how easy it is to slip up in a GAME....its even easier to slip up IN REAL LIFE. Period. Dont run. You will not get away. Unfortunately, there's the other type that see the vids and shows AND plays the games and thinks that when the time comes, they are prepared. Wrong.
Bikes vs. SUV argument is flawed because the bike has less surface area to divide the impact. Bikes cut through cars. If bikes had 6' wide bumpers then I'll agree with you. If a bike going 55 t-bones you in your car it's going to end up inside your car. If an SUV hits you, it'll ruin your day, but with side airbags may not ruin your life. It'll push you for 100'... SO, that'll never be resolved... I do think that the cop shouldn't have chased them. Radio ahead, call a chopper, worst thing is that they get away this time. He'll get what's coming to him someday, and hopefully won't take out a passenger with him. I just feel so bad for the passenger. She was probably screaming at and punching the driver to stop and let her off. I'm going to bet my $5 that the driver didn't have a full "M" endorsement because he just got into biking. That's probably what got him thinking that he had to run. No passengers, no freeways, and not past dark. For me, if/when I see cops giving chase of the group of cars or bikes I'm with, I move over one lane, maintain the speed the cop already clocked me for or a little less, and hope that he keeps going after someone else in my group. If it's me, I pull on over and take one for the team. Luckily, they've always gone after the guys that are in front of me.
If it were a perfect t-bone yup, they do, but the fact of the matter is, bikes normally glance off...because they are inherently less stable being balanced on 2 wheels and don't have the weight behind them that a SUV does. The weight is going to try to stay in motion, for a bike that usually means sliding out, going under the car, going off to the side, and even sometimes going over the car...one wheel popping up. The total force still will ruin your day. Even if it is spread out, it is going to demolish a car. I've worked the accidents...bluelinescoob probably has too. Not only that, in accident investigation we saw the pictures. I even worked one accident where a SUV hit a car so hard (estimated 50 mph rear end)that it forced the mitsubishi eclipse up under the pickup truck in front of it and the rear end of the dodge dakota in front of it, ended up on the roof of the eclipse. There was no rear end left to the eclipse and had there been a passenger in the rear, they would have been dead. You are right about the running without a license thing. Half of the people we had wreck out bad doing stupid stuff had no motorcycle license. We only chased one or two that had committed felonies and the one that we caught (because he dumped it) had no motorcycle license.