Lost a Fellow Commuter This Morning Riding Into San Francisco

[James Burleigh]

[SIZE=18pt][/SIZE]

I-80 hit-and-run kills motorcyclist


 

[SIZE=12pt][/SIZE](04-02) 14:10 PDT OAKLAND -- The person responsible for a fatal hit-and-run on westbound Interstate 80 this morning that left
a 52-year-old Concord man
dead abandoned the car in a nearby parking lot, police said.
 
A 1990 Honda Accord was found in the toll plaza parking lot just east of the Bay Bridge shortly after the 5 a.m. collision, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. R. Ross. Investigators were able to match evidence left at the scene of the accident with damage on the car, he said.
 
The Honda apparently was making a lane change about 300 feet east of the toll booths when it hit a Harley Davidson motorcycle being driven by Concord resident Timothy Haagensen, Ross said. The car struck the motorcycle on the driver's side door, Ross said, throwing Haagensen from his bike and killing him.
 
At least one person witnessed the collision, Ross said. Police have impounded the Honda and are working on several leads, he said. He declined to elaborate.
 
The driver may have called a friend to pick them up from the toll plaza, Ross said, noting that there is no pedestrian access to the parking lot.
 
Anyone with information on the crash should call the CHP at (800) TELL-CHP.
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This was a nasty one. Except they're all nasty. But unlike a lot (most?) motorcycle accidents, I couldn't talk my way out of this one: "Oh, I would never have been blah blah blah...."

There but for the grace of God go I. Because I am a 51-year-old Concord man, and I cross that patch of concrete every weekday morning where this guy was taken out. In fact, as I rode over the spot just 3 hours after the accident, the concrete was littered with the ashes of CHP flares.

The accident closed down the HOV approach to the Bay Bridge for a couple of hours and was the top traffic story this morning. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I started getting e-mails from concerned friends and colleagues whether I was all right--including from my wife.

I e-mailed my buddy who works at the Harley dealer nearest Concord, and asked if he knew the guy. He did. Said he had loud pipes, and then added kinda sardonically that it proved loud pipes don't save lives. I think he's seen a lot of people get killed over the years.

Anyway, this accident is another heavy stone in the pack that is weighing me down with trepidation and, appropriately, causing me to act more my age. I was bummed out all day about this, thinking about this guy suiting up as he does (did) every morning, and about his family. Right now, in a house just blocks away, is the sound of inconsolable crying.

When I was suiting up in my Aerostitch to come home from work this evening, I felt weary and resigned about getting on the bike, the way a WWI battle-hardened soldier must have felt when he was about to go over the top....

What are we, crazy....?

RIP, Tim.

Jb

 

[03HiYoSilver]

James,

I am sorry for your loss...however Keep the Faith.

Drinking water in California causes death...so freaky things do happen...in cars too.

One thing that we must appreciate about the FJR, it sure in Nimble & Fast to keep us out of most dangerous situations. I think riding a little faster ahead and out of traffic has its advantages...cruisers tend to mosy in the traffic and get into more situations regardless of how loud their pipes are.

My thoughts go out to you and give my regards to his family.

 

[wpbfjr]

sobering as a weigh a job offer a 40 mile commute from my home...

i know what twn and others say: when your number's up, your number's up...

rip, tim

 

[HIGHLANDER]

JB,

I thought of you instantly when I heard the news about just before 6am this morning, glad your checking in OK.

It's a very sombering feeling riding past a downed rider. Last summer Di and I split lanes for a quite some time, almost 45 min, as traffic was stopped dead on the freeway. At the head of the stoppage was a twisted HD, with a rider with a yellow sheet over them. Very chilling experience.... we never spoke for the next hour as the reality of it weighed heavily upon us.

RIP Tim, our unknown rider.

 

[NoSlowGuy]

As a Bay Area resident, I too herd of the M/C fatality this morning. One of the guys at work went by about 10 min after the incident.

My deepest condolences to the family who lost a father and husband.

On the brighter side (if there is) the area the collision occurred is covered by cameras, the SOB that killed the rider will soon be brought to justice! Not that it will brings the victim back.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Sobering news indeed. I hope this coward is brought to justice quickly.

While we joke around at the expense of HD riders here, they are out there on their bikes, just like us. It's no joke to hear of this happening to anyone.

My sympathies go to the family of this rider as they mourn his untimely loss.

Jill

 

[James Burleigh]

The hit-and-run driver would have been smarter to stop for a different reason than just the normal human decency and compassion, namely, because as the AMA has pointed out, you can pretty much get away with no penalty for killing a motorcyclist in this country--maybe a $100 fine for lane violation. Now that the perp ran, it'll be a stiffer penalty ($500?).

 

[TriggerT]

The hit-and-run driver would have been smarter to stop for a different reason than just the normal human decency and compassion, namely, because as the AMA has pointed out, you can pretty much get away with no penalty for killing a motorcyclist in this country--maybe a $100 fine for lane violation. Now that the perp ran, it'll be a stiffer penalty ($500?).

True, but more than likely the car was stolen. If it was his car, dumping it doesn't accomplish much. How hard is it to trace the car back to it's legal owner?

As far as the dangers of riding the bike, I think about it more and more as a new (15 months), and soon to be again, father. However, I have seen people die for the dumbest reasons. Living my life the way I want is not dumb, it's freedom. I have said for many years that doing the dangerous things I love to do, in the safest way possible, is what life is about for me.

"Life has a flavor the protected will never know."

Be safe. THINK!

 

[Toecutter]

There but for the grace of God go I.

[SIZE=18pt]X 100100[/SIZE]

What are we, crazy....?

No, we're the ones who are willing to take on the requisite extra risk to be the Deer & the Antelope of the asphalt jungle, as opposed to the domestic sheep who graze peacefully in the confines of a fenced enclosure, protected by a dog and a shepherd, blissfully unaware of an alternative existence. In the end, we all die. In the meantime, I choose to be the prey animal and take my chances.

It's true that many cruisers ride slower than the fast flow. I pass 'em all the time. Tried it once, never again.

Take a cage to work for as long as it takes to be ready to suit up and jump back into the trenches. An un-focused mind is in a deadly state.

 

[rocketdoc]

Don't know all the circumstances but this guy leaving the scene is unthinkable. On Sunday on my way into town on divided four lane in the car. I had passed three cars and was preparing to return into the right lane, mirror check, shoulder check ..all clear and just as I am about to move into the right lane with my signal on, a GSX-R with a guy and his bubble butted girl perched high on tail blast by me on the right probably 20mph faster than me. I came very close to tagging those kids. I ride and preach shoulder checking for bikes and cagers but vast differences in speed and passing on the right can be deadly.

Let's be safe out there people and use our heads.

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

When it's close to home it usually hits home. There was a similar accident on I-80 in Roseville 2 summers ago when a BMW was hit by a lane changing car and I got calls that day (it was before I had the FJR and still had my BMW). Sometimes when I swing the leg over the bike I get a somber feeling and reflect upon the people I have known that have passed away. I know I've never dreaded riding the way a battle hardened WWI vet dreaded going over the top...heck, thank goodness I've never been in a position to dread anything like that.

 

[EXPDSGT]

I get run out of my lane so often that I don't even begin to get upset about it any more. Just move over and "give it to em".

Condolences to the family and friends.

 

[Malve]

JB,

Glad to hear you're ok. I think we all had a scare this a.m. before we heard from you.

My wife was one of the first on the scene of a fatal auto vs. cyclist fatal accident on this last friday. She has been having trouble shaking the image of his face, with eyes wide open as he lay there in a puddle the blood pouring from his head. Supposedly he flew 30 ft after bouncing off the windshield of the car....46 year old attorney getting some exercise... so sad.

To make matters worse there have been several fatal accidents on this road (highway 67) over the last year and my wife knows that I drive it every day usually on the FJR. In fact, it was after passing a near fatal, bloody, motorcycle wreck on the same road while we were in the car together that delayed my purchase of the FJR initially. It was the Sunday before the wednesday that I was supposed to pick up an '04 in Monterey and my wife was so shaken that I canceled the purchase and walked away from $500 deposit. I waited about 6 month from then before I bought my '06.

I find that if I think about the possibilities too much, I ride too timidly so I try to be aware but not overly focused on the potential repercussions of a bad get off.

God bless the departed and their families.

 

[Waaane]

The driver probably won't get any real punishment which is a damn shame. But I can't say that I am real surprised that this happened. Unless you have driven the eastern approaches to the SF Bay Bridge around the toll plaza its hard to describe. Imagine 3 or 4, four lane freeways converging at once. The Toll Plaza itself must have 25 gates. The HOV Lanes are confusing as hell or were the last time I went through there and the way people drive during commute hours is truely horrendous. This driver no doubt thought he saw a little opening that might save him 2 or 3 seconds and never looked back.

I commute across the San Mateo Bridge at 6:00 in the AM. The approaches and toll plaza are nowhere near as bad as the Bay Bridge but its still a very dangerous place. I get lane changed into all the time and i am always in the HOV (center lane) so I get traffic coming at me from one side only. It is still by far the most dangerous piece of road I ride. The cars just don't pay attention at all. If my commute was across the bay bridge I am not sure I would ever ride my bike to work.

All you people that don't regularly do a toll plaza please be careful when you do...Its a truely F**king dangerous place.

 

[rocketdoc]

Waane, you've got that right. Last year after the WFO, Kasey and I headed into Frisco a la tourista, over the Bay Bridge, man it was crazy. There were bikes lane splitting by us at 50 mph while the cages were rolling if best at 20!

We did lane split, new for us Canucks but did so very cautiously, highbeams on and just over the cager speed. That saved us maybe a half an hour getting through the Toll booths. Exciting, sort of, but not as much as the gang shooting outside the hotel at Fisherman's Wharf, now that was crazy!

 

[James Burleigh]

I was watching this link, getting all bummed and pissed off about the rider killed, when at the end of the video the news team films a rider entering the "kill zone" where the other guy died yesterday--and I'll be damned if he doesn't almost get killed! It's all caught on tape.

BTW, that's the pavement I cross every morning. I always pick the left of those two lanes (well, the one the rider was killed in yesterday). Apparently what happened was that the car driver made a last-minute decision to bail out hard left into the parking lot. Which one of us geniuses would have seen that coming? (I know, every last man jack of you except me.) ****.

 

[HIGHLANDER]

Looks like the CHP has a couple leads now , hope it leads to the arrest of the murderer.

https://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...BAG61P14VF5.DTL

 

[Midlifefjr]

Being a Sacto guy I drive into The City a couple mornings a month. It's pretty scary in the Cage. Stay safe.

 

[painman]

From the info I heard the rider was not splitting or sharing lanes and that the Honda car had been cutting in and out of traffic and that when the car came into the bikes lane it hit the bike so hard you could see a perfect outline of the bike in the side of the Honda. I pray they catch these murder's soon and condolences to the bikers family. PM. <>< :angry: