Trailer kills motorcyclist

[dantama]

(KSL News)A motorcycle accident on I-80 this afternoon shut down Parley's Canyon.

A utility trailer came unattached from a car heading down the canyon. A motorcyclist behind it couldn't stop in time and slammed into it.

The motorcyclist was flown to the hospital in critical condition.

I-80 was closed for some time but has since reopened.

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Don't know what happened, but I find it curious that if the trailer is unhooked and out of control, it and the bike came to rest right next to each other.

[ringadingh]

I wonder why he couldn't stop if he was behind the trailer. Maybe the information got mixed up a bit.

[dantama]

Originally Posted by Ringadingh

I wonder why he couldn't stop if he was behind the trailer. Maybe the information got mixed up a bit.

I agree, a bike can out stop most anything that is not connected to a human for control and rubber tires and brakes.

I know many people ( I've actually asked people while on car trips) who think that if a truck in front of you lost its trailer, then the trailer would come flying back at you. If you continued the same speed that you were going, it may appear to do that, but if you hit the brakes it'll be accelerating away from you.

I once easily out stopped a large ( 4x4x4 feet) wooden bin of apples that came off the truck in front of me while going 70mph down the freeway. I would think that a trailer with free wheeling tires, even with the hitch dragging will stop slower than a large wooden bin with no tires.

The trailer was probably holding up traffic a bit, the motorcyclist was impatient, and he was simply following too close.

Looking at the photo, the trailer doesn't appear to have brakes of any sort, but it does appear to have hit something: Like the car that was towing it, whose driver panic braked when he realized his trailer had come loose & was dragging by the safety chains.

[dantama]

Here's a post from the reader comments on the story on the news website.

Let me just say that the story on this was misleading. I was there when this happened. The trailer dropped on the left side of the road and the people that own it were on the side of the road trying to wave traffic away from it. We stopped because we thought they needed help. The biker rode up on the trailer and ran into a STOPPED trailer hitting the back right corner. He then flew across the lane and landed about 25 feet in front and to the right of the trailer. My friend and I were the first to reach the driver so I DO know what I am talking about.

Well! That blows my theory all to hell....

Yeah, "misleading" is putting it mildly. Hitting a stationary object on the shoulder isn't quite the same as "couldn't stop in time".

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by Ringadingh

I wonder why he couldn't stop if he was behind the trailer. Maybe the information got mixed up a bit.

That didn't make sense to me. either. He was probably behind the trailer, going uphill. Maybe the trailer had already come to a stop, and the rider couldn't avoid hitting it? I hope the cabinet company has good insurance coverage. I smell a lawsuit...

Edit: I should have read the eye-witness post before I wrote this.

[dantama]

This is just a guess, but it seems likely from the witness statement ( the witness stopped no problem) that the rider was perhaps weaving in and out of traffic and had his mind geared to targets that were moving, and he was picking them off going down the canyon.

That road is I-80 going down a canyon. It's got some good curves and is very scenic. I know that freeways are generally very poor motorcycle rides, but at 75mph this one is great on a bike. I did it often going between Park City and Salt Lake City.

If he was weaving in and out of traffic in typical sport bike fashion (again I have no way of knowing this, it's all just a guess) he may have seen the trailer, and not really noticed that it wasn't moving.

Your mind sees what it expects to see, unless you are very careful. Once he realized it was stopped he may have tried to make a lane change and clipped the rear corner.

This scenario is easy to align with the witness statement. Would have been nice for the witness to have been a rider and have seen it from a rider perspective.

[bobzinger]

damn immovable objects will get you every time!

[Idaho]

Dan is correct about seeing what you expect to see. Unfortunately we may not get a second chance like this poor guy. Just be careful and slow down in traffic.

[cactusjack]

This rider didn't die. He broke both legs, crushed his pelvis, and has other injuries. Last I read, he is in stable condition. He wasn't wearing a helmet, according to the UHP.