Group Ride Casualty

[TomInPA]

I was leading a group of about 10 riders today to Mt Diablo near Walnut Creek, CA. Great day for a ride and we really enjoyed the approach through the Sacramento River Delta and a tour of the small one-lane twisty road that is Morgan Territory Road. Had a quick lunch and were heading to the Mt Diablo entrance by some back suburban roads to avoid the freeway. We arrived at a Tee intersection, and I made a left, and saw some cars approaching, and was of course hoping everyone would be careful entering that intersection,and knowing I would need to wait at the next turn.

I arrived at the next turn with one other rider behind me and saw cars stopped at the intersection we had cleared. Rob was the fourth rider through the intersection and pulled out into a Kia SUV traveling at speed. His Gold Wing caught the left front fender of the car as it passed from left to right. It tore the front end around on the bike and left him dazed and laying in the middle of the street. The SUV was totally missing the right front fender, and the bike is certainly totaled. At the accident scene, I placed the FJR in the middle of the road near the down rider with the emergency lights on. He was just recovering consciousness and 911 had been called. Paramedics arrived and Rob was sitting up and coherent. He was wearing a good riding jacket, but leather chaps over jeans. The jeans had ripped out of the chaps and a laceration on his hip was bleeding onto the centerline of the highway. They made the decision to backboard him which is SOP for most bike accidents have had the misfortune to attend. He was taken to the hospital and may have a hairline hip fracture and will no doubt be very sore. He is in the hospital in Walnut Creek tonight for observation.

Just sucks. I keep going over the accident and try to think of what I could have, or should have done differently as ride leader. We tell riders every time before we leave, that you may ride in a group, but you ride your own ride. I think in this case he just followed the 2-up riders in front of him into the intersection and hit the car. He is fortunate he was not T-boned and instead hit the front side of the fender. All of the impact damage is square on the nose cone of the Gold Wing. There was some white paint on the back of the full-face Shoei helmet where he probably spun and hit his head on the car as it passed.

Well, I need to get some sleep tonight, but these are not good thoughts.

 

[SkooterG]

Bummer.

A person has got to ride his own ride. Period. A rider leader cannot be responsible for what other riders do. Don't blame yourself.

Every rider has got to ride their own ride!

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

That just sucks. Sorry about your buddy and I hope he heals quickly.

I agree with Skooter, every rider is responsible for his ride. But it is stories like this that make me nervous in groups larger than 3-4.

 

[GalaxyBlue]

Heal quickly fellow rider.

Gunny what Skoot said.

 

[TriggerT]

That sucks, but from the title of the thread I thought the person had died, so it turned out a lot better than I was originally thinking it would.

 

[Willie]

I agree with others one must ride their own ride while in a group and the leader can not and should not, nor should they feel responsible for the actions of those following. This ride your own ride is especially critical where the ride becomes more spirited in nature and one feels they may be riding a little over their head. Drop back and catch up later.

While I don't know your particular circumstances, maybe a preride meeting reminding the other riders that at intersections and other such trafficy areas to not simply follow. The leader will stop where appropiate for the group to regroup again.

Willie

 

[kolonial72]

Sorry to hear of the misfortune. Your feelings on the matter are to be expected. I know I would be upset if someone following me on a group ride went down. But don't let it tear you up, and don't let it discourage you. Three things (two of which have been posted at least once) come to my mind:

1) Ride your own ride. I especially like what Willie said about a pre-ride explanation of why and how.

2) I have never been terrible comfortable riding in a group of more than 4. Rode in a group of 8 once. I really didn't enjoy the ride that much. Anyhow, I've seen large groups split into smaller groups for the sake of safety.

3) A bit of familiarity helps some riders. When you know the other riders, their tendencies and limitations, you can make more informed choices whether you are leading or following.

Most of all, as has already been stated, this is not your fault. While it is understandable if you feel somewhat responsible, you did not force the rider into the path of that SUV. Learn what you can learn, and then move on.

 

[beemerdons]

Brother Tom: SkooterG, SPU, GB, Willie and Kolonial are right, everyone must ride their own ride and you as the Leader could have done nothing to prevent this! Like Trigger said, all should be in a state of mind that it is fortunate things were not worse!

 

[Geezer]

I am always sorry to hear about motorcycle crashes, and especially ones where someone is injured. This is absolutely not your fault or responsibility. I'm sure you will find out more about the specific reasons this happened and maybe we will all learn something useful from it.

 

[cougar8000]

As other have already stated. Everyone must ride THEIR ride. They are not your kids and you shouldn't hold their hand crossing the road.

On the other matter. Leaving your bike on the middle of the road NEAR fallen rider should be nono. Considering that you had other riders there, next time send them at least 150 feet each direction to warn/slow down traffic. last thing you need is your bike flying towards you and that fallen rider by a cage that fell asleep.

Oh, and you might want to find Accident Scene Management courses in your area.

 

[Khunajawdge]

1) Ride your own ride.

2) I have never been terrible comfortable riding in a group of more than 4.

3) A bit of familiarity helps some riders.

Yep to what he said!

Sorry to hear about the rider's misfortune.

 

[Tyler]

That sucks, but from the title of the thread I thought the person had died, so it turned out a lot better than I was originally thinking it would.

+1 Glad your buddy just has a broken hip!

We are all responsible for our decisions when we are out on the road, whether a solo ride, with a riding buddy, or in a group situation. We all know that. But I know as a ride leader, it still makes you stop and think, as you doing right now. You're a good man to find a way to communicate better with riders in a group... but, as the others have already stated, it is up to each person to be responsible for themselves.

EDIT:

Rob was the fourth rider through the intersection and pulled out into a Kia SUV traveling at speed. I think in this case he just followed the 2-up riders in front of him into the intersection and hit the car.

Again, all of these statements refer to the rider in the 3rd person... not "I" forced him to jump into the intersection or "I" told him to take chances when riding. It sounds like maybe he tried to skootch by but misjudged his skootching distance (and yes, skootching is a technical word... ;p).

 

[ynotride]

Don't beat yourself up it wasn't your fault.

On one of the FJR Big Bear rides we had split into 3 groups. Fast, not so fast and speed limit riders. I ended up being volunteered to lead the fast group. Even though I don't think I am fast I do enjoy going a little over the speed limit. About 20 minutes into the ride 2 of the FJR guys felt I wasn't going fast enough for them and passed me. One of those FJR guys had a friend on a GSXR600 and he followed them. I didn't really care at the time but it turns out the guy on the GSXR was a newby and was riding way over his head and ended up going down a few miles up the road. Luckily he wasnt hurt to bad other than his pride but I still felt somewhat responsible even though I knew it wasn't my fault.

After that ride I really took to heart the ride your own ride. Honestly I will never lead a group again. I now ride with my wife and she knows to not try and keep up with me and that I will always wait for her up the road. When I ride with Fairlaner he is a alot faster than me and is a better rider. I know this from the start and never try to keep up with him especially knowing he stops every 30 minutes to smoke

 

[Auburn]

You are not responsible for his riding, he is.

The only thing I would suggest is to emphasize "ride your own ride" during a pre-ride meeting and what it means. Also, go over what to do if someone in the group gets lost and where you all will meet.

Good to hear he will recover and it was not more serious.

 

[Warchild]

Very unfortunate indeed. This is one of several reasons why I always ride alone, or with perhaps one other rider.

To me, group riding is simply a rolling distraction. One is so concerned about proximity to others, or the potential for mishaps, etc, that it detracts from the overall enjoyment of The Ride.

That said, this is likely just the Endurance Rider in me talking... I know others enjoy group riding, and manage to pull it off without incident. But as your Wingabago driver experienced, it doesn't take much to find yourself in the Hurt Locker.

From your wound description, it almost sounds like he was wearing ass-less chaps? Major drag.... if you're going to go airborne and land on your hip, it is a whole lot better to do so while wearing Quad-Armor...

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

TomInCA -- believe me, I'm not trying to lay a 'guilt trip' on you (you've already got alot on your mind) -- but, since you brought it up...:

"Just sucks. I keep going over the accident and try to think of what I could have, or should have done differently as ride leader."

Yes, everyone's responsible for their own...yada,yada...

But, there are differences in group rides (especially if they're a mixed group or a group that doesn't ride alot together).

Here are some things that may help in the future...?:

Acceleration is "Feet/second/second" -- IOW, you can't catch-up (by going the same speed -- speed-limit). Once time has passed, the successive riders MUST accelerate harder and go faster to stay with the group. This often leads to 'the caterpillar effect' (you can picture that in your mind -- the bigger the group, the longer the 'caterpillar').

The leader can offset much of this by just accelerating slowly after leaving a stop/intersection/corner/etc. The leader, really, needs to keep one eye in the mirror and not race-away from the group.

Often, lesser-skilled riders will say: "I'll just ride at the back of the pack." That's a particularly poor idea -- all the speeding is at the back of the pack. Lesser-skilled riders would be better-served riding nearer to the 'slowly accelerating' leader.

The old dirt-rider custom of every rider being accountable for the rider behind them may help? IOW, don't procede until you're sure the rider behind you is coming along. Eventually, even the front rider will have to stop and you'll all get together as a group again. This may lessen some rider anxiety?

Another help for group rides may be 'route sheet' for all participants? It needn't be grand -- just some notes jotted-down on paper, so they know where the destination is and some of the roads/route-changes/etc. I once used a cheap note-pad with carbons between the sheets and jotted-down the next few hours' ride at a lunch stop and gave each rider one. Again, may lessen anxiety?

And, lastly, good on'ya for offering to lead the ride -- the willingness to step-up and put-together something for fellow riders is to be commended.

Good luck working thru this...

 

[TomInPA]

I really appreciate all the support and empathy. I really never blamed myself, and slept well last night. My thoughts, like most of you, is what can I do to help riders focus on their own ride and not just follow the pack. Its a major problem with group riding, and I may back-off these kind of meet-up rides in favor of riding with friends or solo. Some of you saw my "Commute" ride report from Thursday where I covered 700 miles solo over very technical roads. I have no problem riding solo, and meeting up with other riders along the road. Small groups of similarly competent riders is a lot of fun as long as the temptation to be competitive is avoided. Group rides like this one are difficult in the sense the pace has to back way down, and it detracts from my ride to have to navigate and shepard many riders on the route. It is worst when going through a number of busy or controlled intersections, and best on the remote open roads. I enjoy these guys, but The groups are just too large. I have posted some pictures below of a ride we took last week. Judge for yourself.

Rob was a frequent rider with our groups and other than his habit of lagging, seemed competent. I think he may have experienced a blind spot or just lost focus. I am having serious second thought whether I want to continue with this group.

A morning stop along the Sacramento River

Waiting at the Ryer Island Ferry

 

[LagerHead]

If you had waited for a break in traffic big enough to fit 10 bikes in, you'd still be there. When riding in groups adjustments have to be made, which is why I prefer to ride in groups of only experienced riders. Don't even start to blame yourself for this one.

 

[redtail]

Sorry to hear about anyone going down. It can happen so fast. It's often just "seconds and inches" when you're on two wheels. I think think a lot of us ride for that very rush! This is another reality check of the consequences.

I prefer to ride alone, or with one other rider. What I have enjoyed, however, have been the forum gatherings where many small groups all meet for food. Turns out many travel on the same roads, but there's always a tale of a new road to be explored another day!

Maybe it's just me.

Hope your friend recovers soon.