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Time for another installment of “If you had asked, I would have told you that…”
– While I’m sympathetic to his suffering, if I’d have been on the Hartford Superior Court jury, I would have voted against awarding Connecticut rider Joseph Chaplin nearly $534,000 as a result of a crash that occurred when 92-year-old Samuel Stone suddenly turned in front of him on July 19, 2011 in Enfield, CT.
Chaplin was thrown from his motorcycle after striking the side of Stone’s Ford Focus. He landed on the pavement and was knocked unconscious. He has since suffered from memory loss, headaches, depression and PTSD. Oh, yes, Chaplin wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Given the dangers associated with riding, it’s idiotic to ride without a full-face, DOT-certified lid. Anyone who does so and winds up horribly injured bears as much of the blame for the consequences as the driver who caused the accident – if not more of the blame. Head injuries can be prevented. Want proof? If you haven’t seen it already, watch this video.
The “Connecticut Law Tribune” has the full details on the jury verdict here.
– Given the worldwide success of Ducati’s throwback Scrambler models, there’s no way Yamaha won’t sell its recently-announced 2016 XSR700 in the U.S.
The retro model has only been given the nod for Euro sales so far. It shares a 689cc twin engine with the FZ-07 as well as chassis, suspension and wheels. The wet weight of the XSR700 is only 409 pounds.
– Since 1:41 a.m. today, I’ve received 11 – yes, 11 – press releases from BMW. Enough already!
– It may have a low profile in the U.S. with its line of inexpensive, 499cc thumpers, but India-based Royal Enfield is looking to become a major global player.
The company plans to focus on middle-weight bikes – 250-750cc – and hopes to produce and sell 50,000 bikes a month by year’s end. VisorDown has a backgrounder here.
– I can’t help but thinking that Indian has more up its sleeve. In announcing its 2016 lineup of bikes, the company only noted ABS being added to the Scout model and the bigger bikes getting new color schemes. Is that it? Isn’t there a Sport Scout model on way?
– Getting back to stupid riders, a motorcyclist in Indiana died Friday after riding into the median on I-65 between Lafayette and Indianapolis. State police said the victim was texting while riding. And he wasn’t wearing a helmet, either.
– Fining a parent for taking a child out of school to go on a memorable family outing is ridiculous. But that’s what the Great Wood Primary School in Morecambe, England did recently. It imposed a £120 fine on John McGuinness for taking his five-year-old daughter, Maisie, to watch him race in this year’s Isle of Man TT.
McGuinness, who is known as the Morecamble Missile, recorded his seventh Senior race win at the Isle of Man with a 132.701 mpg lap record. The 43-year-old McGuinness knew that a fine would be likely when he removed his daughter for the event as he had earlier taken her from school for a trip to Australia.
“The Visitor” newspaper in Morecambe quotes the school’s head teacher, John Ross, as saying, “We are only able to authorise absence in exceptional circumstances.”
The Isle of Man TT certainly is an exceptional event.
I have to agree with you, to a point,, regarding your article about the mc rider who got into the accident.
I believe that it was right for the jury to award him the money but these judgements should be based on the amount of protection he would have had if he had been wearing his helmet.
It’s the same thing regarding wearing a seat belt. People often asked me why we have seatbelt laws. They say it shou,d be up to the individual driver.
I tell them to imagine they are in a crash with an oncoming car. The crash is your fault but it was a lower speed crash. The driver of the other car is not wearing his seat belt and his head cracks the windshield and he suffers serious injuries as a result.
However, had he been wearing his seat belt, he would not have gotten injured at all. Now your insurance company is going to have to pay out hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars just because this driver failed to do everything he could to protect himself from injury.
Or let’s say your driving along and your obese friend (who refuses to wear his seat belt) is in the front passenger side seat while you are driving. You get slammed on your passenger side and you car rolls over with chunky boy rolling over onto you and literally crushing you to death.
Or under the same circumstances, you have to swerve to avoid an oncoming vehicle and as a result, your friend slides over to your side cr using you against the door. You lose control of your car and crash. Had he stayed in place, you would have been able to avoid a collision by keeping control
Had he been wearing his seat belt, he would have stayed in his seat and your chances of surviving just increased exponentially.
These circumstances apply to the safety factors of wearing a helmet as well. Of course, these examples are for relatively lower speed crashes in an estimated range of 10 to 35 mph.
Everything is relative.
Lol. This is just another example of people who have been in positions of authority for waaaaay too long.
The power goes to their head and they completely lose their sense of reality and what’s “actually” important in life.
It’s more important that these administrators enforce their “I’ll tell you what’s a good reason to take your kid out of school” rules than to listen to and apply reasonableness and common sense.
The same thing happened a couple of years ago in Shelton Connecticut when the high school principal wouldn’t let a senior student go to the prom because he asked his girl to the prom by posting 12 inch high cardboard letters at the front of the school. He and his friends did this during the night. Nothing was harmed and he admitted doing it.
He got suspended for it and since you (another rule) can’t go to the prom if you are suspended after April 1st, he couldn’t go to the prom.
Believe me. Im no Liberal ” everything’s ok just do what ever you want to if it makes you feel good Democrate. I’m all for enforcing rules but as we all know, there is almost always an exception. For only an insensitive, power hungry administrator would stop a good kid from going to the last prom he will ever get to go to again. And for what?
Here is the article:
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Shelton-High-senior-has-a-date-but-can-t-go-to-1373621.php
Thanks for your articles. This is my first visit and it appears it won’t be my last.