Slayerhater fails to countersteer, sends Vette and sportbiker to hospital

Triumph rider with 2 weeks total experience on bike fails to countersteer, whacks Corvette, causes sportbiker to nearly die. Forest rangers to cut down red trees as a distraction to wobbly riders. US129photos.com gets best video proof yet of failure to countersteer.

US129photos.com - Crash on The Dragon Oct. 16th, 2012 Tuesday

ETR - Rider down - Severe injuries to sportbiker after towing company illegally fails to clean up oil on road from earlier crash by cruiser/Vette.

ETR - Cause & Effect - No mention of the obvious failure to countersteer. USDOT reports that 90% of riders are too stupid to know that riding a bike requires steering in the opposite direction of every turn.

Max fee for nonconsentual towing (police-ordered tow after crash) is set by THP or county towing contract (usually zero dollars to $25 max), not by a towing company charging $500 to $1,500.

THP and TDOT publish report to ban all photojournalists on the Dragon at Deals Gap

4th death on the Dragon in 2012 due to failure to countersteer

Tennessee legislature bans all billboards and signwavers from all TN highways as a 'distraction' to drivers

---

Order your Used2BeFast calendar today!

Anybody heard anything about how the rider is faring? Our understanding is that he was taken down by some fluids from an earlier wreck on the Gap. He left in an ambulance this afternoon, but we haven't heard anything since.

do know is that it was at 4.2 and he went quite a ways off the mountain after losing it in the fluids from the earlier Harley/Vette wreck. He was conscious and in pain, and his helmet took a hard hit and he had some confusion. I believe he was flown to UT.

prayers sent. saw the harley/vette crash around 1, came back through around 3:30ish just after he went off... saw and smelled the oil everywhere. had no idea someone crashed at the time, just saw a few riders in that pulloff standing around. once the ambulances and fire trucks started rolling by the overlook, figured it mustve been bad

Here it is:

Broken back
Fractured skull
Broken neck
Both lungs collapsed
Lacerated Liver
On a ventilator at the moment
Able to move legs,toes,fingers
Outlook prognosis Good

Is he known as usedtobefast on here?

Yes.

My question is this. Back when i worked for a tow company, we had the city contract. We had to clean up ANY AND ALL reminants of a wreck. No matter how much oil dry we had to use. We were told several times by the thp that if something happened in the spot where we did not clean up that we would be held liable. How come the idiot drivers in tow trucks that frequent up there dont clean the road any better!?

Same here Drop. I worked for AAA for 5yrs. back in Cali. and we were required when called out on a 180 (accident call) to clean up any, and all debris on the seen (less human haz-mat). This included; any vehicle fluids, parts, glass and such alike. Although I have seen several sloppy cleanup scenes since moving out here, so I'm not surprised. The first thing that popped in my head was the 'cause and effect' here. This chain of events started with a rider taking his attention away from the road to wave at a camera man. Is it possible to say that photogs on the side of such a road is too much of a deterrent from ones attention to the road itself? This is a sincere question, not a rhetorical one. It is very hard as a seasoned rider myself to hear of such an incident. Godspeed to Jeff at such a hard time. I really do hope everything turns out okay man.

My experiences with the tow.companies up there are to charge 500-1500to winch a bike up, screw whats in the road. As long as they can rape the riders they are fine. Hence ive never used ANY of their services and never will.

I'm the Corvette driver from the Triuph/Vette accident earlier that day. I witnessed the oil spill cleanup after the motorcycle was put onto the wrecker truck. Lots of talk about the fluid spill causing the later, much more serious accident in the same spot. I'm gonna post what I saw of the cleanup process in a separate post.

McDonalds and other companies do occassionally hire costumed characters to get your attention which takes away from your concentration on the road. Same thing.

I'm NolaVette from New Orleans (Gretna) Louisiana. I'm the guy driving the red Vette that collided with the Triumph cruiser on Tuesday the 16th at about noon. I heard about the discussions on this forum concerning the accident your friend, Jeff Had in the same spot as my incident. First of all I hope he's eventually OK. This is chain of events immediately after the collision between me (Corvette) and Ron (Triumph cruiser). The photographer who shot the photos asked a passing motorist to call the troopers and also wreckers for the vehicles. There is no cell phone service up on the mountain. About an hour later the trooper arrived and began his investigation. He listened to our verbal accounts and also looked at the same photos you've all seen. A single wrecker arrived from Blount Wrecker Services to retrieve the motorcycle only, which meant there was no wrecker for my Vette. Trooper called on his radio to have another one sent up from a different company. Once the 2 guys from Blount had the motorcycle tied down on their truck they proceeded to clean up the oil spill. They used a shovel to dig dirt from the roadcut to spread onto the oil on the road. They took a fairly long time to do this whil I waited for my wrecker to arrive. After about 10-15 minutes working the dirt into the oils pill the trooper walked over to them and talked with thema bit and then they wrapped up the cleaning and left the scene. I did not see them use anything other than dirt and I have no idea if this is standard procedure. Before the first truck arrived I was very worried about motorcycles driving over that oil spot and we were trying to get them to slow down as they passed over it because I knew it had to very slippery. I wanted let everyone know what I saw and also to let everyone know that the wrecker service that picked up my Vette had not even arrived until after the oil cleaning process had taken place and the trooper spoke with the Blount truck crew. I don't even want to name the Wrecker service that picked up my car to avoid any confusion which happens easily on these forums. I hope that helps. I had a couple of feet to spare on the right side. I was watching him the whole time wondering when he was gonna finally whip the damn thing back onto his side of the road. Then the airbag popped me in the face.

Your account of the clean up process is typical. I don't like to wear tinfoil hats, but I wouldn't put it past Butler's (I am aware they weren't the crew in this instance) to do a half assed job and if, by accident, some more business is drummed up, win. A killboy tip: using the shale stones that are common along the highway up there to write "OIL" in the road as a warning is an effective measure. It washes away once it rains....along with the oil. Thanks for the 1st hand account. It's cool to hear from someone who was involved.

You can see the point when the rider target fixates, he stands the bike straight up and gives up trying to avoid the crash. Even though he runs wide at first, he still has it leaned over trying to bring it back into his lane. Once he sees the 'vette, the bike stands straight up. That's a natural response to a panic situation that you have to learn to break. I've done it myself, and it is hard to change.

I cleaned up all the pieces from the Triumph/Vette wreck and hauled them out on Thursday. So the debris is now removed. There is gray sand embedded into the trees that Jeff hit so I assumed that they put down EZ Dry (cat litter). It must be just grinded pavement then.

And no, dirt is not the standard for cleaning any fluids from a vehicle. We were always required (if on 180 rotation) to carry absorbent (kitty litter) on our rigs for accident response. It's sad to hear they used dirt.

How many wrecks occur in non-photographer-set-up corners? What's the ratio? I'm not up there a huge amount, by any means, but of the five or six accidents that have happened while I've been up there haven't been in any of the photog corners... (that number doesn't included slayin'er down in the parking lot trying to pull out either) Beyond that... if the photos hadn't been posted of the first wreck, would this thread even exist? or would there only be a "Get Well Soon, Jeff" thread that would have a mention of a previous wreck in the same corner, earlier in the day. I'd say this particular incident is getting sensationalized. But that's just me...

Yes, some people do tend to show off for the camera and that gets them in trouble, but there is also another side to this. When I first started riding the Gap I always rode much more careful in front of the photographers because I did not want to appear on the interwebs as an example of a Ohio clown. So by that token it is also possible that they have reduced accidents.

I have a tidbit to add here, as a friend of mine was in the Deals Gap area at the time of this incident ... and recognized the bike in the Vette collision as one that he and a few others had helped pick out of a ditch on NC 28 earlier on the SAME DAY! In doing so, he obviously had an opportunity to speak with the rider. Three weeks of riding experience. THREE WEEKS. Deals Gap is not the place to learn how to ride ... particularly on a bike that is probably a bit on the heavy and cumbersome side.

PJFZ1 WINS THE PRIZE: "I'd bet that the Rider in the pic sequence that started this thread was missing at least one of the needed skills, and most likely more of them.. I wonder if he knew how to brake while leaned over and tightening his line? Did he have any idea of how much traction was available? If he ever practiced countersteering to snap the bike around a hazard?"

I think this is one of the more interesting threads in recent ETR history. There is nothing wrong with a spirited debate. Lots of great points to consider and draw your own conclusions (and perhaps help someone avoid/prevent future trouble).

Used2befast photo by The Dragonater

Looks like that sportbiker's camera caused that crash, since it was visible in the slayerhater's mirror.