No Drinking & Riding: A Darwin Moment

[Coyoteman]

I was riding along in sheer delight today and then witnessed a vision of horror, the stark reality of life breaking through as a bike sailed straight off the road. I was approaching a “s-corner” I know very well, one of those gradual ones that you can take with ease at very high speed – all of a sudden I see a large super-sport bike coming through the corner at 100+ by my estimate, but the rider is not leaning his bike over fully. As far as I could tell, he stayed on the throttle and did not back off, and ironically was afraid to lean the bike over, and so he went wide, and continued right off the pavement, riding on dirt and gravel for about 150 feet, then completely loosing it, the bike flipping and flying off an incline into the forest; the bike launched in the air about 20 feet or so, following the rider as he flew out of sight.

I pulled over, and so did a driver of a truck who also witnessed this, and as he and his passenger and I ran back to the scene he looked over at me and exclaimed, “Oh my God, he is dead – he’s gotta be dead from that. Dude, did you see that?” I was running towards the scene just in case the rider was alive, but I was also thinking we were going to find a dead person – the accident was so severe.

As it turns out, though the bike was literally in pieces, having disintegrated, and the man was unconscious when we got to him, he was alive and soon regained consciousness.

He had borrowed the bike from a friend, had only ridden small dirt bikes, never a sport bike, had no motorcycle license, and was profoundly drunk. In fact, he was so drunk, though clearly injured, we could not keep him down, and paramedics had to give him the choice of going with them, or going with the highway patrol when they arrived, in order to help him. I could not believe how drunk this fellow was.

I suppose being drunk saved him, but then, being drunk, as well as inexperience, caused the accident.

I do not wish harm on anyone, but I have to admit my sympathy departed when I realized this fellow was “drunk as a skunk,” – and I hope the lesson the “universe is teaching” him gets through; that’s one very lucky man to be alive! I’m truly amazed, astonished even, that the man is alive.

I share this experience just as another reminder that drinking and riding is never a good idea, whether experienced or inexperienced on bikes; also as a reminder that loaning a very powerful bike to a brand new rider might not be so friendly – even if they are sober. I can’t help but wonder at a “friend” who would to this. What a set up for disaster!

I’ll also confess that I do not have much sympathy for the person who loaned their bike to a drunken friend today and lost their bike – I doubt insurance will be covering the loss, and in some way that seems like justice to me.

Ride conscious, and enjoy your ride

[SJS]

Coyoteman - Well written and I could not agree with you more. I experienced something similar years ago with 2 former friends of mine. The bike owner who was drunk allowed the other friend who was also drunk and a very inexperienced rider to ride his bike. Same thing happened, the guy crashed the bike. Fortunately, the rider only had minor scrapes and cuts, nothing major but the bike was nearly a total. I say former friends because both guys got really pissed off at me because of my lack of sympathy and that I did not help the bike owner rebuild his bike. My thought was to not help out to drive the point home that there was no reason for the accident if common sense would have been used. It might have been a tough opinion on my part but I figured they both got what they deserved.

I've got no problem if after the the ride, a guy wants to kick back with a bunch of cold ones and get a little beer buzz. Just remember, after the ride. Bikes are dangerous enough as it is. Couple that with all the people in their cages yapping on their cell phones and playing with their GPS systems while they drive makes all of us riders have to ride with an even more acute sense of awareness on the road as compared to the days before cells and GPS systems.

Ride safe, ride sober and celebrate after the ride so you can ride another day.

[Coyoteman]

I have to agree with the *after* the ride comment - I do love beer, especially on a hot summer day, but never before or during a ride, always after. I like to have my balance and my wits about me when I ride, and admittedly, completely sober I tend to push the boundaries, so in an altered state it would simply be nuts.

Enjoy your ride

[EmilySons]

The bike owner who was drunk allowed the other friend who was also drunk and a very inexperienced rider to ride his bike.

[caferacermike]

God damn it. My insurance just went up again.



Ughhh It's losers like this that ruin it for all of us. I bet he is a breeder too, or will now live long enough to spread his seed. Hopefully his friend's insurance will refuse to pay out for any of this and my insurance premium won't go up a dollar since the pot won't be paying out to anybody. Watch this guy sue somebody, the beer delivery guy, the store that sold it to him, the refrigerator manufacturer, the DOT for designing the road, the county for maintenance, the forest service you know the drill, sue everyone and see who pays out. You'll be reading about how he won $4million because the store owner sold them the beer and they were already drunk, the delivery guy for selling a defective product, the fridge company for making cold beer just too damn cold to refuse, the DOT for not making the road arrow straight, the county for not sweeping the roads, the forest service for not cutting the trees back......Just makes me sick thinking about it. The worst part is that even if his insurance does not pay out, all of our insurance rates will go up as it will be grouped into the idea that "motorcycles are dangerous" category.

[Ducati Marine]

Man!! this blows, theres goes the insurence premiums ><. As a Marine this is beaten into out heads almost daily "if your ganna drink don't ride, if your ganna ride don't drink". but really people its common friggen sense. call me calous but i wish his friend had been on the back and both ended up a Vegtable...we don't need riders like this giving us a bad name........no sympathy here

[Scblacksunshine]

I don't get how these people can ride or drive drunk thinking they still have the same reaction time as being sober. I guess using clear judgement is about as rare as common sense for a lot of people out there. I feel like I can't even ride properly when I am slighty tired from eating a big meal..I can't imagine getting on a bike drunk...might as well strap me to the bike, crank it to full throttle and take away the ability to turn