Motorcycle Crashes

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Treat Williams was a busy actor - I knew him from his character Lenny Ross on Blue Bloods.

He died last week - victim of a motorcycle crash in Vermont.

He was struck by a car making a left-hand turn.

Since that, I’ve heard about at least a half dozen fatalities involving motorcycles, including a 22-year-old who died a couple of miles from here.

Drives me crazy as I often get nervous, as a driver, when I see someone on a bike darting in and out of busy lanes of traffic.

I’ve been driving a long time - I know what drivers on cars are going to do before they even do it - the problem with motorcyclists is that they often do unpredictable things…at what seems higher rates of speed.

And they fly through the air when they’re struck and their injuries are often fatal.

Saddens me greatly because I think of a buddy who drove and loved to drive his motorcycle.

He drove it to work religiously and one day, I watched him speed into the lot.

“Don’t you worry about having an accident?” I asked.

“I drive safe,” he said. “I wear all the PPE.”

“Yeah, but you’re exposed,” I said. “What if you hit a deer? You’re screwed!”

He laughed.

“I’m all right, Mr. Safety.”

I knew I wasn’t ever going to talk him out of driving his motorcycle. Even when I mentioned that as Dads we had the responsibility to not take any chances.

I saw his son some 12 years after the accident that claimed my buddy’s life.

A group of kids had strung a cable across a busy stretch of road.

My buddy hit that cable at night, going about 60 mph on his motorcycle.

Basically a murder (kids were never caught) and his PPE didn’t save him.

He was just 40 years old.

“I loved your Dad,” I told the kid.

There’s not much to say to that.

“Me too,” he said. “Me too.”

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