LA Times Article - "Bikers" playing fast & loose

[Bounce]

1. She's a professor at several colleges and can't afford something more durrable than an escort?

2. All motor vehicles accellerate by opening the throttle, otherwise it sets at idle.

3. I knew NHTSAs stats would be misused (as they intend when they use certain, vague terms - "alcohol related" being just one example).

4. "Loss of human potential" to "society" is an emotional gambit unless the government considers the population "property" and an associated value assigned to same.

5. Typical op-ed verbage for things like "race bike", "land torpedo", "carnage", etc.

6. I will give them credit for making their burdensome fines applicable to ALL operators of ALL vehicles.

7. Bottom line was the kid was reckless and the poster child of squids everywhere. It's a shame that he took someone out with him. Let's hope he didn't have time to breed.

8. Government programs seldom "fix" anything. Personal responsibility is always the trump cars to tossing more feed into the pig trough.

 

[keithaba]

The stupid irony of that proposed huge fine for speeds more than a specified exceedance (beyond the incentive to run) is that there's a big difference between doing that on an empty road in range land and doing that in a congested urban or suburban area.

I have always agreed with modified fines based on the conditions under which the violation occurred, but it would be very difficult for police to make objective criteria for when to use the higher/lower fine schedules. Open roads are not like a school or construction zone with a clear beginning and end. There is a definite difference between speeding on a 2 lane open road in the mountains and Sunset Blvd.

 

[user 3386]

This accident happened just a few miles from my house. The prof was well loved, and community colleges pay diddly, ergo the cheap Escort. Witnesses reported a 2nd bike at the red light, revving it up with the idiot on the Gixxer. Light turns green, Gixxer guns it (80+mph in first) and t-bones the left turning Escort. Rider DOA. 2nd rider rides off. (If he'd stayed he may have been charged with speed exhibition, or worse, even though he wasn't actually racing.)

Darwin got half the job right, here. Unfortunately an innocent victim died too. The Times' Ralph V is a loudmouth, but I agree that 50+mph over speed limit (any vehicle) should result in license suspension.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Has anyone in the L.A. area bothered to write to the paper?

I read this article on another forum and sent an email to the writer. He has not replied. I also read a very well written blog, about this article. The writer bases her statements more on fact than opinion.

https://moonrider.journalspace.com/

Click on the link, and scroll down until you find something interesting. There are several journal entries about motorcycles, one in particular about the LAT article.

Jill