Three of us went out on the bikes today for a little ride. We rode up Birch Bay Drive behind a semi-tricked-out Sentra. It was fairly sedate. We followed the Sentra through Birch Bay Park, then used the turnabout to point back the way we came. We sat and chatted for a minute or two, then took off. Since there was no one in front of us, we punched it a little, and we found ourselves behind the black Sentra again. We trundled along for a bit, when suddenly the Sentra took off at a high rate of speed. Well, I can’t resist an open road; so I took off as well. I stayed in third gear though, and the Sentra pulled steadily away. As we approached some houses I slowed down, but I could see the Sentra still accellerating. I saw the 20 mph sign at the curve coming up and slowed some more. The Sentra must have been doing 80 or 90. On a residential street.
As he hit the corner, I saw his rear end come loose. Now, I could not believe someone would pull a boneheaded maneuver like taking a 20 mph curve at 80. I saw the Sentra go perpendicular to the road; but since my mind was boggling, I thought he was a local who had practiced an impressive way of getting into his driveway. Hey, my mind was boggling.
I lost sight of him for an instant, and when I saw him again he was going backwards into the supporting post of a carport. He continued to spin around, completing one 360° spin. The support post was knocked out and cracked in the middle. The Sentra’s front end was ripped off. The rear window was shattered. The plastic insert from the bumper was in the road, and the steel part of the bumper was across the street.
There were no injuries.
We stopped, and other witnesses gathered. When the deputy arrived, he heard the story: The kid (looked like a teenager) tried to take the turn too fast and he lost it. One of the witnesses told me it happens about twice a year that someone hits that house after spinning out on the curve. He said he would have given the kid props if he had made it. After the deputy talked to the driver and the passenger, he talked to me next. I told him that we were behind the Sentra, and he suddenly punched it and lost control in the curve. The deputy asked me how fast he was going, but I told him I didn’t know. In retrospect, I think 80. Maybe 90. Could’ve been 100, for all I know.
When I revealed that I thought the kid may have been pulling an intentional stunt to get into a driveway, they thought I was nuts. I just could not believe anyone would try to take the corner at that speed unless he had some sort of plan. No idea why he would just stomp on the accelerator like that. Sure, it was a straight road for a bit of a distance; but he’d driven round the curve on the way out. One of my friends opined that the passenger said to the driver, ‘Can this thing outrun those bikes?’ (No reason for him to, since we were just cruising along enjoying the sunshine.)
I do kind of feel for the kid. My first four cars were sports cars, and I know I pulled some bonehead maneuvers in them. Maybe I always just backed off in time, or maybe I was just lucky. Kids will be kids, and, unfortunately for this bloke, he wasn’t lucky. (Come to think of it, I did crash a bike due to my stupidity – high speed on an unfamiliar road at night with a tinted visor, and a 90° turn I didn’t see – but I wasn’t a kid and should have known better )
We lived in a house like that. It was at a the dead-end of a T-intersection where two fairly major roads came together. We always dreaded Blackhawks season when the drunks headed home from night games. The best one took out a big section of 7-foot wood fence and demolished our solid-brick garage. If the garage hadn’t been there he would have been in the kitchen. He walked (well, staggered) away from it, too. They finally put in a guard rail after the 2nd or 3rd fence replacement.
Col. Mustard, in the library, with the rope. I mean… XJ600, in Malibu. I was working on a short film, and we’d just finished the last of the shooting. I don’t remember the road, but it was one that lead from the beach. I was tired and anxious to get home, and happy that we were done. I took off a bit fast, forgetting about the sharp turn. I didn’t go down, but I did go off the road and dropped it after I stopped. I had to straighten the handlebars before I took off again. It was more embarrassing than anything else.
I only went up to the Angeles Crest a few of times. There’s one turn in particular that I remember looked particularly treacherous.
I don’t ride the R1 as hard as I rode the Seca II yet. For one thing, my leathers don’t fit. For another, the weather up here is not good for year-round riding, and I don’t want to get out of my depth. I sometimes forget how much power is available and surprise myself by getting the front wheel off the ground. I rarely had that happen on the Seca! Maybe I’m getting more cautious in my old age. Or maybe it’s just that there’s entirely too much gravel on the roads up here.
That sounds almost identical to an accident I was in several years ago. The driver was drunk (yeah, stupid), we didn’t actually spin out of control, and we slammed into trees, not a carport. But yeah, insanely fast around a really sharp corner? Check. We were in a solid beast of a truck though, not some little toy. The front end was completely smashed and we all got a few minor injuries out of it, but no one died and we all walked away from it unassisted.
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