news
Deer, the motorcyclist’s menace
By Robert E. Vanderhoof #77941 THE
RALLY IN BILLINGS WAS
over, my 2013 GS Adventure packed and ready to go. I said goodbye to some old Poverty Riders from Florida, and I was ready to head back to Utah. It was a beautiful July day, mild tem- peratures, sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. I had left the rally grounds early that morning without breakfast, so I stopped in Bozeman, at about 11 a.m. to eat an early lunch. On the road again and heading west, about 20 miles west of Bozeman the country opened up into large expanses of farm fields and sagebrush. I remember rid- ing along at 70-75 mph, seeing the Spanish Peaks off to the south with the wide open road ahead of me and thinking, “What a great day for a ride.” The flash was brief, but in a milli- second I recognized the image, now
unforgettably burned into my memory: a deer running full speed from the left, per- pendicular to my line of travel, head down (like they run when busting through wooded thickets). Like a rocket it launched itself into the side of my bike, hitting me in the left arm and striking the bike just behind the front wheel. The bike pitched violently back and forth. For a brief moment I thought I could regain control, but I was skidding along the pavement before I knew it. After sliding for what seemed like an eternity, I stood up, briefly assessed my injuries and flagged down the first car to arrive. The whole encounter probably took less than seven seconds. My story is not unusual. Deer-vehicle
collisions (DVCs) are all too common, and despite declining deer populations, appear to be on the rise. The Wisconsin DOT reports that in 1978 and 1979 DVCs made
up just 5.1 percent and 4.7 percent of all crashes respectively. From 1996 to 2013, the number of DVCs averaged 15.3 percent. State Farm estimates that in West Virginia an average motorist has a 1 in 40 chance of striking a deer over a 12-month period. A single county in Wisconsin reported 809 deer-vehicle collisions in 2013. Most often when a car or truck is
involved, the encounter means death for the deer and a minor inconvenience for the motorist. When a motorcycle is involved, however, both the deer and rider can share the same fate. According to AAA's Mid- Atlantic chapter, during 2010-2012 in Mary- land and Virginia seven of eight deaths in fatal DVCs were motorcyclists. The Wis- consin DOT reports that 13 of 14 fatal DVCs in 2012 involved motorcycles. Across the country AAA estimates 70 percent of deer crash fatalities involve motorcycles.
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BMW OWNERS NEWS August 2016
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