I hate this sor to crap...

azitlies · Sep 9, 2012

this is a link to what happened in Florida in Obama;s motorcade...

No matters what your political party, this is a tragedy, of course it is, no doubt about it.

But what happened? did someone cross the center and run into the motorcyclist? or was it something else? Can anyone tell? I can't...

So right, a Ford F150 hit the bike... who F'd up?

any clues?

wfooshee · Sep 9, 2012

I'm frankly amazed that any other traffic could get near the motorcade!

There have been three Presidential visits to my town that I can recall, and in all three, the entire motorcade route was closed to normal traffic over an hour before the motorcade passed, including cross streets. If you were south of the road and needed to be north of it, you had to wait. In one instance the visit was for a campaign rally. Air Force One landed at Tyndall AFB, motorcade went from there to the rally site at the west side of town, and afterwards back to Tyndall to fly out. The motorcade route was closed for the entire time, nearly three hours all told. Everyone knew it was coming, though, so arrangements could be made for kid pickups by friends, whatever.

My point is that Presidential motorcades don't share roads with regular traffic, so a motor cop being hit by someone is awfully strange indeed.

EDIT: Just found this on another site. The officer was not actually part of the motorcade, but was setting up to block an I-95 on-ramp for the motorcade.

azitlies · Sep 10, 2012

wfooshee said:
I'm frankly amazed that any other traffic could get near the motorcade!

There have been three Presidential visits to my town that I can recall, and in all three, the entire motorcade route was closed to normal traffic over an hour before the motorcade passed, including cross streets. If you were south of the road and needed to be north of it, you had to wait. In one instance the visit was for a campaign rally. Air Force One landed at Tyndall AFB, motorcade went from there to the rally site at the west side of town, and afterwards back to Tyndall to fly out. The motorcade route was closed for the entire time, nearly three hours all told. Everyone knew it was coming, though, so arrangements could be made for kid pickups by friends, whatever.

My point is that Presidential motorcades don't share roads with regular traffic, so a motor cop being hit by someone is awfully strange indeed.

EDIT: Just found this on another site. The officer was not actually part of the motorcade, but was setting up to block an I-95 on-ramp for the motorcade.

sheeesh man I'll tell ya... it's too much sometimes. So it looks like he may not even have been on his bike, just setting up a blockade. More of a "news" thing then anything else, maybe.

Good find on that stuff bro.

HotRodZilla · Sep 10, 2012

Presidential motorcades suck. They're dangerous in a car, and much more so on a bike. Walt is right about the roads being free of traffic, but the speeds involved leave very little room for error. Couple that with the fact that there are lots of vehicles in the group, and the President's immediate escort team is not stopping for shit, and it takes driving and riding to a higher level.

We lost a Rio Rancho bike officer here in Albuquerque a few years ago. He lost control navigating a curve near the airport and hit a tree (I think...Don't exactly remember the specifics of the crash). Speed was a factor because the escort moves fast. Crashes are actually a pretty common occurrence.

As far as the guy getting hit while setting up a barricade; that's sadly, not a surprise. Directing traffic is one of the most dangerous things we do. I worry more about my guys directing traffic on the freeway than I do when we enter a house.

There's no telling what drivers are paying attention to, what kind of mental state they are in, how much they've had to drink, when's the last time they stuck a needle in their arm, or how fast they're gonna be going when they approach us. So when you see lights, please slow down and move over.

Thoughts and prayers are going to this man's family!