Seniors group crash

I'm having a really hard time understanding this one.
This is all on a fairly straight piece of highway too.

Four motorcycles collide; five injured on Highway 1

Six riders traveling together on four motorcycles crashed into one
another Sunday morning while heading north on Highway 1 near
Pescadero Road. Five were flown to Stanford Medical Center, two
with serious injuries, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The 11:05 a.m. accident occurred after two of the motorcycles stopped
behind a Toyota Tacoma, which was preparing to make a left turn onto
Pescadero Road, said officer Ryan O'Day. The last two motorcycles
failed to stop in time and slid into their traveling companions.

George Boyson, 75, of Pacifica suffered a compound leg fracture,
broken arm and head trauma, O'Day said. Boyson was riding the
last motorcycle. Also badly hurt was the lead rider, Robert Bacich,
70, of San Francisco. He suffered rib fractures, collapsed lungs
and a dislocated left shoulder.

The road was closed for about two hours for emergency crews to
render aid and for helicopters to land, O'Day said.

All lanes of the highway reopened at 1:45 p.m.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/13802979.htm

 

My guess is that the two that slid into the two that were parked are
both from the "Front Brake is Bad" school of thought and they both just
skidded the rear tire right into them...

 

Rear brake only was my thought as well., although I suppose
a rider's weight could screw up your braking a whole lot
even if you were OK solo.

I suspect that if you haven't already learned to ride by the
time you've retired, maybe it's not a great time to start learning.

 

I know some of the people involved. These are not novice riders.

I'm having a problem reconciling these parts of the account:

-r

 

My guess is that the two that slid into the two that were parked are

If we are assuming from steriotype, Goldwings won't let you do that, brakes
have been interlocked since the 80s

 

Hmm. The left turn, if originally northbound, would be into the
parking lot at Pescadero Beach. Maybe the entrance is still called
Pescadero Road? Or maybe the officer referred to the intersection AT
Pescadero Creek Road, and Mr. Khánh got it wrong...

Nasty in any case. CA-1 leading north to the intersection is flat and
striaght, running past beach on the left, down a bit of a cliff, and
fields of vegetables on the right (Brussels sprouts, I suspect).
Depending on the weather, they might have been distracted by the
scenery, and I have often seen groups riding much too close together.
It's one reason I prefer to ride alone.

Al Moore
DoD 734

 

I'm having trouble reconciling the whole account with "not novice
riders". Sounds an awful lot like riding abreast and following too
closely, whatever else happened. Maybe the account is really
badly garbled but still, a four bike collison on a four bike ride ?

Whatever happened, I hope they're recovering well.

 

Easy peasy.

The walking frame being carried on the back of one of the
rear bikes had come loose and the two rear riders were both
looking at it and didn't notice the two in front had stopped.

But, more seriously, they may have been distracted and seen
and reacted too late; they may have hit only the rear brake
as suggested; or they may have both been in the suicide
track, had IQ Dump, hit the front brake in panic, the bike/s
went down and, hey presto.

Whatever, it's fairly obvious that a major fault component
here was the fault of looking where they didn't want to go!

 

This is why I always look directly up when crashing.

That way I take to the sky, spattering feces and urine upon all those that
are still below me.

Unfortunately I usually land about 20-30 feet later, and find that my
resultant broken bones leave me woefully unable to deal with the crowd of
angry people.

:/

 

Goldwings started coming with the unified braking in 1983, same year
as mine. The rear brake is linked to one of the front discs. The
other front disc is by itself.

Raymond

 

When my daughter described a bicycle accident, she spoke of the
couple of glorious seconds when she was flying through the air
like superman. And then reality set in with a bang.

 

"Dave Slavik" wrote

Thank you, Superman...

I'm sure you realised that I meant that the riders probably
target fixated on the back of the bikes they thought they were
going to hit, when they could have looked to the side of the
bikes and gone there.

All that room and no use made of it! ~sigh~

 

Sure they are Olde Folkes, but are we sure they were actually on
Goldwings?

 

I do, too. This is a sad story. I intend to be riding into my 90s, if
gasoline is still available. (I turn 55 tomorrow, yechhh!)
I wish them all the best. I wonder which one of them wasn't injured, and
why...

 

Introduce her to the wonders of paragliding...it's awesome!

 

I'd heard Harleys from someone who rode by.

 

Probably still sugar beets, then. I never actually stopped to look.
They were about the right color for brussels sprouts, and I know they
grow a lot of those on the farms north of Santa Cruz (whence the
annual brussels sprout festival...) -- I always associated sugar beets
with a bit further south and inland, around Los Aromas.

Al Moore
DoD 734

 

Now I've seen the Age of (One) Aquarius. Happy Birthday, Barbz!

Rich, Urban Biker

 

We were on vacation once, and on our way north. In the Valley, we
stopped to pick up some sugar beets which had fallen off a truck.
A trucker stopped, and warned us not to eat them. Apparently, they will
cause severe gastric distress. Unlike sugar cane, you cannot eat them or
suck on them, they have to be processed.

Awfully nice of the guy...it could have ruined our vacation for sure!

 

How dare you diss our state bird!