Five killed in California crash involving 12 motorcycles

[somone]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/14/california.motorcyle.accident/

Five killed in California crash involving 12 motorcycles
By Rick Martin, CNN

(CNN) -- Five people were killed and six others seriously injured when a car struck a group of 12 motorcycles on a California desert highway Saturday.

"I was one of the first emergency officials on the scene. Of my 23 years on the department, it was the most devastating scene I've been to, and I've seen a lot of fatal accidents," said Deeann Goudie, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol.

Police are searching for another car, which left the scene of the afternoon accident. Goudie said they got a 911 call from one of the motorcyclists.

The motorcycles were on a highway in El Centro, Imperial County, just east of San Diego, when a gold Honda Civic tried to pass them, police said. Goudie said the Honda passed the motorcycles, but a Dodge Avenger swerving to avoid hitting the Honda struck the motorcycles head on...

[midnight]

1. I don't get this move by the dodge.. This is just too sad.

[proud patriot]

4. My husband is asking the same thing

We love our Desert Bike Rides to AZ . We are very familiar with desert highways .
Why didn't the dodge just go into the desert a bit there is so much room on these highways .

Just made the most horrific choice , the most costly to life including the passenger .

We are just devastated .

[petronius]

5. I just saw the LA Times article - it says the Dodge driver lost control, so it's possible

he went to the shoulder first and then came back out of control. He was also arrested on suspicion of DUI, but CHP still thinks the Honda is responsible...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/chp-search-for-driver-who-caused-accident-that-killed-5-1-arrest-made.html

[Xithras]

10. If the Dodge driver was DUI, he'll take responsibility no matter what.

California law places fault for all accidents with the DUI driver, whether or not they actually caused the accident. The legal assumption is that a sober driver would have reacted better.

It's up to the local DA, but if this guy really was drunk, he could be facing 5 counts of vehicular manslaughter...even if the accident was the fault of the guy in the Honda. It's legally permissible in California for the CHP to clear the Dodge driver of wrongdoing, but for the DA to charge and (probably) convict him for the deaths anyway.

I lost a very good friend in a very similar accident about 20 years ago. She was the passenger in a car driven by her brother, who was driving under the influence. A car crossed the center line into his lane, and he swerved left to avoid hitting him (his choices were to swerve left, or to hit the trees and power pole along the right median). He missed the car that swerved into his lane, but struck the car right behind it head on. His sister, my friend, was killed instantly.

The police eventually determined that he hadn't caused the accident, and that there was nothing anyone in his position could have done to avoid a collision. The DA charged him anyway, and he spent two years in prison for killing his sister. The driver who swerved into his lane was caught, convicted, and was given 30 days and a license suspension for reckless driving and leaving the scene.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. This was always the best argument I had when I tried to dissuade friends from DUI

Needless to say, they all believed that either they weren't that drunk, or they "have done this drive a million times."

But I'd always say, Oh, I'm sure you won't do anything wrong, but if some other asshole fucks up, you'll end up blamed for it.

It really works, especially with the real macho "I'm an awesome drunk driver" types.

[jancantor]

17. Thankfully, that's not the law in my state

DUI is in itself a crime, but it does not make a collision automatically your fault. Perfect example is DUI driver stopped at stop light, and sober driver plows into them from the rear. Clearly, the rear-ender is at fault and will be viewed as such, but the DUI will still get arrested for DUI.

[Xithras]

30. Oh, there have been far more egregious cases than that in California

I know of one case where a guy who was heavily intoxicated (.10+) pulled his car off the side of the road and stopped in the fog. Another driver came along a few minutes later, ran off the road, and slammed into the back of his car. The driver of the second car was killed.

The driver of the first car was charged with vehicular manslaughter and DUI, even though his car was stopped against the curb and out of the roadway. He HAD been driving, and he was still behind the wheel and the car was running. He'd simply pulled over because he was drunk, confused, and lost in the fog.

He got a year in prison.

There have been MANY cases like the example you describe, where a drunk gets rear-ended. The drunk always gets assigned fault.

It's hard to feel any pity for these guys. The law is pretty well known in California, and yet these people choose to climb behind the wheel drunk and put our lives at risk anyway. I've lost too many friends to drunks to have much sympathy. If you don't want to risk it...just...don't...drive...drunk. It's a choice.

[proud patriot]

11. ah that makes more sense now

[Cleita]

12. My very first thoughts before reading these replies.

Alcohol impairs judgement when split second decisions need to be made. I thought, "I'll bet the Dodge driver had been drinking." This doesn't exonerate the Honda driver either though.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

28. Because the driver was DUI

[CreekDog]

8. The Dodge swerved off the road then lost control and went back on

the shoulder was sandy apparently.

this was reported on sfgate.com

[stray cat]

9. At say 60 miles an hour with a car in your lane heading straight at you

you may not even notice anything in the other lane - picture coming over a hill and there is this car coming straight at you.

[krispos42]

20. Self-preservation?

A Dodge Avenger is only medium-sized. It's a mid-size sedan. It's not a hulking SUV, and a head-on crash with a Honda Civic would probably be fatal to everybody in the Avenger AND the Honda.

By swerving into the pack of motorcycles (about 600 pounds each), not only are the bikes narrower and more agile, but if you're unlucky enough to hit one, odds are you'll be okay.

Sucks for the riders, though.

[petronius]

2. Awful. Those two-lane highways (assuming that's what this was) can be terrifying,

with people driving at interstate speeds, poor passing decisions, big rigs, and local traffic all mixed together.

The description of the wreck is odd, though - I don't see why the Dodge didn't swerve to the shoulder instead...

[CLANG]

16. Apparently he did, but lost control.

[rubberducky]

3. This is a real heartbreaker. RIP

[jkappy]

6. Questions sd be aimed at the Honda, not the Dodge! n/t

[TwilightGardener]

7. Yep--if opposing traffic had to do anything at all to avoid a wreck, then the car

that tried passing is to blame, IMO.

[Cleita]

13. If the Dodge driver had been impaired by

alcohol consumption, he too is at fault.

[Dyler Turden]

14. As a biker I hate to see things like this.

So many cagers have no respect at all for a bike because it probably won't hurt them if they hit you.

[Skittles]

18. I'd be very hesitant to pass one bike, let alone a slew of them

[Dyler Turden]

23. My rule of thumb while riding is to ride like everyone else on the road

is out to get you.

I believe it has saved my life at least a time or two.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. And that is nowhere near any of the County's Trauma Centers

six... lord that means Mercy Flight and the Sherif's department... but they are still short...

Sheriff's has been trying to get a second one, but there is no money.

And East of San Diego... that is about oh sixty miles from Downtown...

[flvegan]

21. Trying to pass a line of bikes while packing a whopping 125 horsepower.

*cough* douchebag *cough*

Some people are just too stupid to be allowed to drive.

[cliffordu]

22. Yep. Exactly.

[RamboLiberal]

25. The douchebag was estimated at going 95mph

"It looked like he overreacted, but the guy in the Honda Civic was at fault," said Smith, who estimated the Civic was going 95 mph when it passed the motorcycles.

Ramirez, of Mexicali, Mexico, swerved his white Dodge Avenger to the right shoulder to avoid the Honda and then overcompensated by swinging left into oncoming traffic, Goudie said. Ramirez's speedometer was found stuck at 60 mph, 5 mph below the speed limit.

"It would have been nice if he had just gone off to the right," she said. "He would have been stuck in the soft sand."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-14-california-crash_N.htm

[flvegan]

26. Which means he/she came up behind the group going at least 80.

I was in an accident caused by avoiding an oncoming driver. A Dodge Avenger? I don't know if I can fault the driver for losing control. If he was DUI, that might be a bit different.

Such a shame.

[applegrove]

24. Apparently some transplant hospital doctors call motorcyclists 'donor cyclists'. I read that in

Super freakonomics.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Not just the docs

You really do not want to know some of the jokes that go around things like this...

:-)

And it is not limited to transplant docs

Truth be told, if you ride, it is a matter of time when you will fall... so USE all the safety equipment and hope for the best. If you fall (and that goes for a regular bike too) and you hit your noggin' replace the helmet even if it looks pristine. It goes without saying that helmets should be replaced every so often as well, just as a matter of course. (And buggers are not cheap either, come Spring I am doing that with my bicycle helmet)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

29. The Dodge driver was DUI

His passenger was killed as well.