Friday, June 24, 2005

Attention all idiots: Get out of the gene pool

A young woman in Maria's office is dating a guy who bought a motorcycle a few weeks ago.
Even though the guy had to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's rider course when he was in the Marine Corps, it appears he forgot how important safety gear is. Well, from my brief encounters with him, the guy is a moron and has no judgment.
Maria and I dropped into the office a couple of nights after he got the bike and he was there visiting his girlfriend - make that distracting and interfering with her job. His bike, I think it's a Honda Shadow, was parked in front of the office. It had no license plate.
When I asked him about it, he said the temporary cardboard tag got wet in a rain shower and disintegrated. I also noted the absence of a helmet with him or on the bike.
It developed that he had a helmet, but thought he'd only use it on trips. He also planned to ride home in the dark with sunglasses for eye protection.
I worked into the conversation the fact that I've ridden more than 300,000 miles and was an MSF instructor and Bureau of Motor Vehicles motorcycle skills examiner for 10 years and suggested that the urban traffic environment is the most dangerous place he could ride.
"If you're going to get hit, the odds are it will be at an urban intersection where the car or truck driver makes a left turn into your path," I said, adding I wouldn't ride around the block without a helmet, let alone make a habit of it.
Other than the fact that his behavior will likely put unnecessary demands on the health care system when his inevitable crash occurs, I care little for what happens to him.
But I am concerned about how his stupidity can harm others. He has custody of his 2-year-old son and I was horrified to hear he took the kid for a motorcycle ride, with the bareheaded kid perched in front of him on the gas tank. In my judgment, that's grounds for Child Protective Services to take the kid away - reckless endangerment.
He also carries his girlfriend around as a passenger. I haven't had the heart to ask, but I assume she rides without a helmet too.
A friend of his was killed this week in a motorcycle crash. The victim, a 22-year-old guy, was riding helmetless when he tried to pass a car on the right at a point where the pavement narrows to two lanes. The guy ran off the road, lost it in gravel and did a face-plant on a deer crossing signpost.
Boyfriend went to the hospital after the crash but his friend had been transferred to a regional trauma center where he died a few hours later. Chances are, a fullface helmet would have saved his life.
Get the message, Boyfriend?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Darwin's theory at work!

Totsie said...

Rrrgh, that angers up my blood.

My girlfriends last boyfriend had a bike, and she would occasionally go helmet-less as not to muss up her hair and "what was the big deal they were just going a few streets over to a restaurant blah blah".

So I asked her "Does Brittany prefer apples or oranges? Because I'll have to know that stuff when I have custody of her and I'm packing her lunch instead of her real Mom who preferred nice hair over life."

The boyfriend is out of the picture but I don't think she would have listened to me anyway. Stoopid stoopid stoopid.