On the way home yesterday,  some guy on a motorcycle attempted the flyover at the Highway 183/Mopac expressway interchange at rush hour. For those not familar with the location,  it's a one lane flyover with a pretty sharp curve in it. 50mph is pushing it in a car.  

Speed is uncertain but well up there. He, In copspeak, "exceeded the critical speed of the curve" and impacted the retaining wall. Launching himself over an 80 foot drop, and maybe a 200 ft horizontal distance from impact. The motorcycle and the guys lower leg stayed on the flyover.  He landed smack in the middle of the lower expressway, and for a miracle,  no one ran him over. Not that it made much difference at that point.

Impressive as hell to see, and it shut down two main arteries in town right at rush hour. I have no idea if he flapped his arms on the way down.

Wonder what he was in such a hurry to get to?  The bright side is,  he didn't kill anyone else, and I scored another 2 hours of overtime.  The bike was too mangled to tell what kind it was, and the retaining wall was not seriously impressed.

Why is it that motorcycles and jerks seem to attract each other?  That's the third motorcycle fatality I've dealt with in 2 months.  All were a combination of idiots and the laws of physics.

I've ridden for years. (BMW) I know very well about jerks in other formats. It's just that the ones on bikes are so impressive when they self destruct. Makes us all look bad.

John,

Yeah, I can see him flying off that overpass in my head now.  It was the northbound flyover, huh?   Yeah, that one is pretty damn high up there.

What is it that makes these morons on crotchrockets think they can defy the laws of physics??  

He should get a Darwin Award in my book.  If he had survived, I would have gone to the hospital, and when he woke up:

*SMACK*   YOU DUMBASS.

Stupidity on a motorcycle is a self-critiquing behavior resulting in a Darwinian thinning of the herd.

Bikes are a lot of fun, but very unforgiving to people who are stupid, inattentive, and have sloppy technique.

So ... helmet?

I rode for several years...had two minors involving only me and some pavement.  Nothing more than a pretty good dose of road rash.  I almost always rode VERY carefully, because I was never what your call real good anyway...plus I was scared!

The worst motorcycle accident I ever saw involved a sailor (Like me at the time.) crossing the San Diego Bay Bridge from Coronado to National City, exited the bridge heading south at way too high a rate of speed, lost control and slid/impacted a Shell Oil gas truck.  The truck was very heavy and he was very squished.  Very nasty what heavy gas trucks can do to a person and a motorcycle. [puke]

I think it must have been off the northbound Mopac flyover to northbound 183.  That ramp is steep and high...

I worked as a Honda tech in the Houston area for 16 years. The low mileage record for destroying your new sportbike was 9 miles. Twenty something cust. rode out on a new CBR 600 with about two miles on it, and made it to I45 to 610 west off ramp curve. When I returned from lunch the bike was already back at the shop hanging off the back of a wrecker. Cust. showed up the next day sporting numerous bruises,lacerations, and a compound fracture of his right leg. He was pissed we had not started repairing the bike yet...

Sorry,  should have been more specific. Matt has the location right.  As for the bike, it was some cruiser type. Kinda hard to tell. How much force does it take to rip a guy's leg off?

As for the Miata,  I have no idea.  My day off I suppose. Did have one guy launch a Nissan pickup off the northbound 183/I-35 flyover it when it was first built.  He didn't land in the roadway though. When we found him the truck engine was already cold. We figure he did it right after closing time and no one noticed until the sun came up.

Yesterday was a rough day traffic wise.  I-35 at Riverside was shut down for two tangled 18 wheelers, and then this guy.

yeah John... traffic on 35 sucks anyway.

I did field service in Austin for 2 years.  Logged about 50,000 miles on my truck in that time.  I think I used I35 maybe three times!  I hate 35.  I avoid it like the plague.  I could get anywhere from Mopac anyway!

I can imagine it must take significant force to rip someone's leg off, but you take the situation, a large bike pinning the leg to the guard wall, then the guy's body being thrown by the centrifugal force... that must have been a heck of a lot of momentum.  Rip, wheeeeee.... SPLAT.  

I wonder what was going through his mind that last second or two...

Too bad for him.. [:(]... we call these guys "Squids"

To try something like that on a cruiser is insane. He had to be either a newbie or drunk. ISTR that most simgle vehicle motorcycle accidents list alcohol as a causative factor.

[size=3]Where are the pics??[/size=3]

He probably made two fatal errors
1) He didn't lean enough.
2) He chickened out, let off the gas and tapped the brake. This combination will cause any wheeled vehicle to push into a corner.

My guess is he tapped the brakes because he was in over his head, which on some bikes has the tendency to stand the bike up straight, which also means you can't corner with a bike in the upright position.

How about the misguided Evel Kneivel wanna be.


He tried to jump over 124[pick your favorite persecuted minorities] in a D-9.

John,

I've seen a few of these nasty ones on the mopac interchanges as well. People are retarded. Always will be, I think.

Do you stop in at Heritage at all? There are a few officers that hang out there for a bit when they need to get off their bikes and cool down, especially in the summer.

Be safe out there..

Doc

Found the article.  Sorry, no pics.

[url]http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/?ArID=73670[/url]