The below was pasted from www.wltx.com a local tv station. The riders did not know each other for the most part and had gotten together to ride to DC for Rolling THunder.

(Orangeburg County) - One person has died following a motorcycle accident on Interstate 26 in Orangeburg County.

It happened near mile marker 154, at the Highway 301 exit.

According to state troopers, a group of 70 motorcyclists were on their way to Florida to Washington, D.C. The biker at the front of the pack raised his arm to slow the group down. The biker behind him hit the brakes hard, and was ejected from from his bike.

The motorcyclist was transported to Orangeburg where he died.

The biker behind the first two bikes laid down the bike, and collided with the bike in front. That biker was transported to Lexington.

No one else was injured.

Riding with groups you don't know is silly for lots of reasons and that's a BIG one IMHO. :)

I don't even like doing rides with my H.O.G. group that much same reason, I always leave more distance when riding with people I don't know.
Last year I took a friend on a H.O.G. ride and the first stoplight a mile down the road the lead guy actually locked it up to stop at a yellow , he said to keep the group together, nice guy but should not be in the lead. It's never someone elses fault if you follow to close it's yours.

I rode with the PGR recently and it was very organized and very well managed. Other than something like that, I stick to a few friends that I have been riding with and we give ourselves lots o room!!! :geek:geek:geek

Last Sunday, my buddy and I decided to go on a ride with a small "all brands" club here in town. The day was going to be about 340 miles when it was done and we were headed to a nice destination just short of Yellowstone Park. I was pretty stoked about the ride.

As we're sitting in the lot, I'm watching more and more bikes show up. Ok, actually 21 bikes, but for me, that's a whole bunch. Well, as I'm watching this goat rope start to form up, one bike stands out in particular. It's a clean little Shadow Tourer. They haven't been made for a while and I was impressed with the condition it was in.....and concerned with the way it was being "ridden". Ever remember seeing a kid on a bicycle after about five minutes without training wheels? The gal on this bike was clearly way under trained and looked nervous as could be.

Enough bikes have shown up that they split the group into two groups. My buddy goes with the first group, I go with the second. Not five miles into the ride, the Shadow is upside down in a ditch with the gal laying under it. I was third in line in our group and we going around an easy 90 degree corner. The first bike slides through real easy, the man and woman ahead of me on a Gold Wing take the corner wide and go into the oncoming traffic lane. I'm lugging through the corner in 3rd, like I've done in that corner a hundred times, but I'm wondering what the goober on the Gold Wing is doing. We then do an easy left hander and the leader stops and is looking behind us. The grass in the first corner is about 3 feet tall so we can't see the bike in the ditch. I finally spin around and go back, and there she is. Not skid mark one from her, just panicked and straight into the ditch. Her husband, however, left all kinds of marks on the highway when he laid his Beemer down in the same corner. Apparently he was watching his wife taking the ditch and when he finally put it all together he grabbed a big ass handload of front brake and laid his bike over. So much for ABS.

So, come to find out, these folks had just joined the club and this was their second outing. I gotta tell ya, I really felt bad for this gal, 65 plus years old, laying in a ditch waiting for the ambulance. And there's her husband, picking up pieces of his Beemer he spread all over the road. And as if that ain't enough, one of the club members walks by me and says "Man, that's three times we've had someone crash on a ride". :smackh

Later on in the ride, as we're doing 70 plus on a Wyoming two lane, riding staggered and spaced, I get this cold chill thinking about riding the outside line with an untrained, nervous, over their head, rider ahead of me....in a good fast sweeper.

I'm sure the gal will recover, physically. And if she decides to ride again, more power to her.

I'm just wondering if it's too late to get my club dues refunded.

1. If they didn't break up into at leas 4 groups, shame on them.
2. Each group leader is responsible to find out skill level of riders in the group. Put newbies immediately behind leader and have 'old hands' keep an eye out for them.
3. Pre-trip briefing to include simple hand signs?
4. Always pay attention to whatever is in front of you. :doh

I've ridden in many groups where I wasn't familiar with riding styles of other members. Always like to ride in back to watch whoever is doing something 'less than thoughtful'. Good entertainment at times.

I hope that everyone remembers that it isn't always riding that does a rider in. I was at a Poker Run in March that was run as a charity event by the local Harly dealer. At stop four, i was sitting on my bike ready to go when another bike rolled backwards into mine and hit my back tire. I didn't see a thing but the bike rolled and fell over on my leg. The adrenlin was flowing and I picked the bike up with one hand; my leg had a small bruise and the skin was hardly broken. By the time I got home, the leg was swollen and unbeliveably painful. The internal bleeding caused swelling which was constricting the nerve and artery. That took a week to resolve. The the leg got infected. 3 weeks of antibotics and no change. They did xrays, doppler, an MRI and finally an MRI with radiation which found an absyss in my leg. That turned into surgery resulting in a 5" x 1" x 1" opening in my leg (I have pics!!). Had a PICC line inserted when I left the hospital for IV antibotics and daily dressing changes. Now 8 weeks later, the wound is slowly healing and is only about 5" x 1/2" x 1/2". Dr says maybe another 4 weeks and it will be healed. In the meantime, I missed a lot of work.......and a lot of riding. BTW, the other guy never looked back. So remember don't only look out for your a** on the highway, look out for your a** all the time.

Pirate

P.S. Under Dr's orders, I was allowed to ride for 10 minutes yesterday. He said I needed it; I asked him if it would help my leg heal, he said "No" but it wil help your head. What a guy.......

Pirate

Holy crap, Pirate. Your buddies don't by any chance call you "Lucky", do they?

Any group is just as good as its leader.
Only been on one group ride that there was an accident, and it happened right in front of me. Buddy and his gf went down on a wet crosswalk, this was just after a HEAVY down pour, we were just about to pull over. They made it out fine, the 3 BTs behind me that went down were fine too, I stayed up.