Not to put a downer on anyone, but below is my compilation from various sources the Sturgis Rally bike fatalities (12). I sent this to most of those who participated in the Rally for whom I had email addresses.
If you think this information will be upsetting, don't read any further and please just delete this email.
Jay Clawson offered some observations (see below), however, and then suggested we think about scheduling a class with MRTC, about when we had presentation at our meeting on August 4th.
I'm not volunteering right now to organize the scheduling of such a class, if it could be pulled off. For various reasons, my bandwidth is a little limited right now and in the upcoming months this fall.
But perhaps someone else would be interested in trying to organize a class?
If my schedule worked, then I would take it.
Dan
From: Jay Clawson [mailto:jayclawson@att.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 11:24 AM
To: Dan Pilcher
Subject: RE: Sturgis Rally Fatalities
Hi Dan,
You can forward it to everyone, which was my intention.
Jay Clawson
From: Dan Pilcher
Sent: 8/13/2015 8:28 AM
To: Jay Clawson
Subject: RE: Sturgis Rally Fatalities
Hey, Jay . . I'm not sure if you meant to send your email just to me or to the whole Sturgis delegation! J
In any event, I'm a firm believer in continuous education and skills training—ever since I crashed in March 2003! J
You might put the question out to the full EMRAT group to see how many are interested and then proceed from there. Depending on the date, I might be able to participate, but right now my fall calendar is getting booked up.
Dan
From: Jay Clawson [mailto:jayclawson@att.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 7:44 AM
To: Dan Pilcher
Subject: RE: Sturgis Rally Fatalities
I have followed your postings with interest. There are two things I have consistently noticed:
1) Most fatalities involve riders/passengers who are not wearing helmets (no helmet law in SD). In some cases the helmets may not have prevented major injury/fatality, but even minor accidents are likely to result in head injury without a helmet (even bicycle riders all wear helmets today). It could also be that helmet-less riders are more careless too (just a supposition).
2) It seems that most accidents involve a single vehicle, with the motorcyclist losing control, and frequently in curves. This is surely preventable with more training, better awareness, and not drinking while riding (beer is everywhere at Sturgis, and I may indulge in one beer, along with food, during a riding break).
Our last EMRAT meeting was a reminder that continuous training is important. Is anyone up for taking a group course with MRTC? I'm interested in the Ultimate Bike Bonding class. Any takers?
Jay
From: Dan Pilcher [mailto:dpilcher@cochamber.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 9:30 AM
To: Vince M Lane <blcswvjd@msn.com>; lowrtax@gmail.com; Doc <docmurdoch@comcast.net>; Jay Clawson JayClawson@att.net <jayclawson@att.net>; Jim Maharis jam3tock@aol.com <jam3tock@aol.com>; Steve Harriman Harrimanfive@yahoo.com <harrimanfive@yahoo.com>; 'techhead80542@earthlink.net' <techhead80542@earthlink.net>
Cc: Brian Weberg (bw26354@gmail.com) <bw26354@gmail.com>; Ben Pilcher (benepilcher@gmail.com) <benepilcher@gmail.com>; Aaron Pilcher (aapilcher@gmail.com) <aapilcher@gmail.com>; Dan Howell (Dhowell1027@yahoo.com) <Dhowell1027@yahoo.com>
Subject: Sturgis Rally Fatalities
I hope that I have not upset anyone by sending out the fatality list, but I look closely at these incidents for several reasons (since I was a police reporter back in the early 1970s in Colorado Springs and it was my job to go to all fatality crash sites, take photos that could be run in a family newspaper, read the official LEO reports and then write articles for the newspaper):
· First, what did the rider do wrong (as Norm notes) and how can I learn from it and improve my skills?
· Second, even though they may have made a mistake, I pause for a moment and think about the rider(s) as unique individuals, pursuing our shared passion of motorcycling, folks with whom we could easily have fallen into conversation on Main Street in Sturgis or at Creekside.
· Third, as Vince points out, these tragedies have happened on the roads that we love to ride in and around the Black Hills each year, which adds a level of poignancy to my experience riding there.
Dan
From: Vince M Lane [mailto:blcswvjd@msn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 10:39 PM
To: Dan Pilcher; lowrtax@gmail.com; Doc; Jay Clawson JayClawson@att.net; Jim Maharis jam3tock@aol.com; Steve Harriman Harrimanfive@yahoo.com; 'techhead80542@earthlink.net'
Subject: RE: Sturgis Rally Fatalities
Not pleasant reading as we can picture most of these locations having ridden by them so many times over the years.
From: dpilcher@cochamber.com
To: blcswvjd@msn.com; lowrtax@gmail.com; docmurdoch@comcast.net; JayClawson@att.net; jam3tock@aol.com; Harrimanfive@yahoo.com; techhead80542@earthlink.net
Subject: Sturgis Rally Fatalities
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:28:48 +0000
The number totals 13 if we count the Corvette driver . . . here's the Facebook page for the SD State Highway Patrol:
https://www.facebook.com/SDHighwayPatrol
Some of the paragraphs below are taken from the web sites of various newspapers.
Here's the Corvette driver:
Then, at 2:18 p.m. on Sunday on I-90 at Exit 71, Archie Smith, 73, of Kansas City, Kan., was killed when he drove his westbound 1959 Corvette into a guardrail cable in the highway median. A passenger suffered serious, non-life threatening injuries.
And here are 12 bike fatalities:
At 10:08 a.m., at the intersection of Sturgis Road and Stage Stop Road in Summerset, Margaret Rand, 65, Parker, SD, was driving a 1996 Dodge Intrepid south on Sturgis Road when she made a left turn at Stage Stop Road. Douglas Kellar, 56, Adams, NY, was driving a motorcycle north on Sturgis Road near the intersection and tried to avoid the turning vehicle. He was thrown from his motorcycle and collided with Rand's vehicle. Kellar died of his injuries. He was wearing a helmet. Rand was not injured. She was wearing a seatbelt. Rand was cited for failure to yield.
A Hill City man has been identified as the victim in a motorcycle crash that occurred Friday night on Highway 244, five miles west of Mt. Rushmore. James Peterson, 56, lost control of his motorcycle while entering a gradual curve. The motorcycle left the roadway and struck a rock outcropping. Peterson was pronounced dead at the scene. Alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the crash. Peterson was not wearing a helmet. The crash was reported at 8:59 p.m.
At 12:38 p.m. Saturday, Larry Kaduce, 57, of St. Peter, Minn., was riding his motorcycle northbound on Highway 79 roughly seven miles north of Sturgis when he attempted to pass two pickups pulling campers. Kaduce collided head-on with a southbound semi truck. Kaduce was separated from his motorcycle and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was not wearing a helmet. The semi truck driver was not injured. No one was charged in the wreck.
Keith Reed, 57, of West Allis, Wis., died Wednesday as a result of injuries suffered in a Saturday crash on Interstate 90 at mile marker 34, between two motorcycles and a vehicle. The crash started when Marin Malo, 40, lost control of his 2007 Pontiac G4 and went into the median. The first motorcycle, driven by Wade Rent, 58, of Pleasant Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada, slowed down and was rear-ended by Reed's motorcycle. Reed sustained life-threatening injuries. Rent and his passenger, Ruth Rent, 57, also of Pleasant Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada, suffered minor injuries. No helmets were used. Malo had minor injuries. A seat belt were used.
On Monday about 4 p.m., a Kansas man was driving on state Highway 87 in Custer State Park when his cycle left the road. John Rowlett Jr., 42, of Wichita, Kan., died when he was thrown from the bike and struck a rock. He was not wearing a helmet, according to the South Dakota Highway Patrol.
Also, a 63-year-old North Dakota woman died Monday from injuries incurred during a single-cycle wreck on Interstate 90 at Exit 27, three miles from Sturgis. According to the Highway Patrol, Rose Ann Richard died two days after the crash in which she was a passenger on a cycle driven by Roger Richard, 63. Both were from Belfield, N.D. Their cycle collided with a 2002 Pontiac, and both cycle riders were thrown from the bike, the patrol said. The driver of the Pontiac, 19-year-old Nickolas Hartwell of Rapid City, was arrested on charges of DUI and reckless driving after the accident.
At 11 a.m. on Sunday, a motorcyclist from Iowa died in a wreck involving a suspected drunken driver on Interstate 90 near Murdo. Rhonda Denato, 49, of Ottumwa, Iowa, was killed after her cycle was rear-ended by a GMC Sierra, pushing Denato's bike into another car. Denato was thrown from the bike and later died; the driver whose vehicle struck hers, 55-year-old Randall Miller, of Mount Vernon, S.D., was arrested on suspicion of DUI and reckless driving, according to the South Dakota Highway Patrol.
At 4:35 p.m. on Sunday, on state Highway 44 near Interior, S.D., a cycle driver was killed when he tried to pass a horse trailer that was attempting to make a left-hand turn. Brain Ware, 51, of Seattle, Wash., died in the accident that also left his passenger with serious injuries.
An overnight wreck at 1:46 a.m. Monday in Sturgis killed a Florida biker, the patrol said. Todd Hay, 47, of DeLand, Fla., was riding a cycle south on Middle Street in Sturgis when the bike left the road and struck a wooden fence post in a residential yard. Hay died, while several people who were camping in the yard escaped injury, the patrol said.
An Ohio man died Saturday when he lost control on a curve in the Black Hills and was thrown from the bike, marking the second fatal wreck to occur so far during the extended rally period. William Carter, 65, from Seville, Ohio, was driving a 2001 Harley-Davidson Softail motorcycle north on Vanocker Canyon Road, south of Galena Road, around 5:40 p.m. Saturday when the cycle left the road while taking a curve. According to the South Dakota Highway Patrol, Carter was thrown from the bike and suffered major injuries. Carter, who was not wearing a helmet, died at Sturgis Regional hospital, the patrol said. Alcohol was not believed to be a factor, the patrol said.
Meanwhile, authorities have released the name of the Colorado man who died in a single-motorcycle accident near Lead on Friday. Gregory Bullard, 45, from Fort Collins, Colo., crashed one mile south of Lead on U.S. Highway 14A around 6:10 p.m. Friday, and died later at a hospital in Deadwood, the patrol said.
At 3:35 p.m., US 385, mm 87, at the Sheridan Lake Fishing Pulloff, Michael Weissman, 44, Glendale, AZ was driving his motorcycle as part of group northbound on US 385. As the group started to turn into the Sheridan Lake Fishing Pulloff, Weissman lost control of his motorcycle. Both the driver and passenger were thrown from the motorcycle. The passenger, Destiny Smith, 31, Glendale, AZ, was thrown into the southbound traffic lane where she was hit by another motorcycle. Smith was killed. No helmets were used and alcohol was not a factor.
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