How in the hell do the surviors manage to deal with this.

"How was he killed?"

"Motocycle accident"

"What happened?"

"Uh, he was hit with flying Porta-Pottie and crashed".



www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051223/NEWS/512230324/1001

Firm facing lawsuit in fatal mishap

Loose portable toilet killed biker

NESTOR RAMOS
[email protected]

Article Published: 12/23/05, 2:55 am

A Texas family is suing a sanitation company in Custer, blaming a man's death on negligence that they say caused a portable toilet to fall from a truck, knocking him off his motorcycle into oncoming traffic.

According to the official accident report, Michael Eugene Johnson of Grand Saline, Texas, was riding his motorcycle along Highway 16 in Custer last August when a portable toilet fell from a Sander Sanitation Service truck driven by Earl Christian Baker. The toilet struck Johnson as he tried to pass the truck, sending him sliding into the path of three cars.

"One of the Porta Pottis flew through the air and hit him," said Randy Roberts, the Texas lawyer representing Johnson's wife and daughter.

Roberts said Johnson, 34, was in South Dakota for a "motorcycle event," presumably the Sturgis Rally, which attracts hundreds of thousands of bikers annually. The accident, Aug. 9, was during last summer's rally.

The plaintiffs contend that the toilet was improperly secured, and that Sander and Baker are responsible for Johnson's death.

Baker was cited by police for a "sifting load," though Dan Ashmore, Baker and Sander's lawyer, said that was probably a typo that should have read "shifting load."

Ashmore said a strap broke, causing the accident, and he did not think Johnson had been hit by the flying toilet.

"That's not my impression," Ashmore said. "I don't have any information that he was struck by it."

He said Johnson died attempting to avoid the toilet.

"There wasn't any damage to speak of to the Porta Potti," Ashmore said. "It's not humorous, but it's probably not the best way to go."

The case still is in the discovery period, and the defense has yet to file a response to the complaint.

"We're still in the fact-finding process," Ashmore said.

Johnson's wife, Lisa, and 20-year-old daughter, Shawn, were in Texas at the time of the accident, according to the complaint.

The suit asks for compensation "well in excess" of the minimum jurisdictional requirement of $75,000 in damages, citing funeral and cremation expenses and loss of Johnson's companionship.

The suit also requests compensation for "pain of body and anguish of mind immediately prior to his death."

"We all try to think we lead purpose-driven lives," Roberts said. "It's a hell of a way to go."

Baker was cited by police for a "sifting load," though Dan Ashmore, Baker and Sander's lawyer, said that was probably a typo that should have read "shifting load."

I think "shifting" was still misspelled, but it was only off one letter this time.

At St. Peter's Gate:

"There was nothing I could do.  It was coming right at me!"

There was piece in some motorcycle magazine I was reading a while back about the amount of debris on America's roadways and how drivers needed to be held accountable for them.  I have to agree; I almost had a wreck a few years ago while towing my boat when some stupid woman swerved to miss a mattress that had flown out the back of a pickup truck- the driver of course hadn't stopped.  Yes, I also ride although I haven't in a few years.  

That's horrible!  I bet that guy who didn't tie down the porta-potties is in some deep shit.