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[mrmagloo]

I know you guys keep insisting the LEO was texting, but he could have jsut as easily been using the PD issued Laptop they all use now. Whatever he was doing, he sure wasn't watching where the hell he was going, but how is texting any more or less sinister than him reading an alert on the laptop?  It all should be banned.

[charles05663]

I know you guys keep insisting the LEO was texting, but he could have just as easily been using the PD issued Laptop they all use now. Whatever he was doing, he sure wasn't watching where the hell he was going, but how is texting any more or less sinister than him reading an alert on the laptop?  It all should be banned.

I agree.  It is shameful that there are two sets of laws.  One for the people and one for those who work for the governments.

 

[mr_magoo]

WOW is the cop blind or what.

[KKM]

A coule of weeks back my wife had a loaner car from the Lexus dealer while her's was in for service...
Guess what! This thing has a built-in track ball / mouse and a screen for reading text/email that works while driving.
It links with your smartphone and you can read / send with it. It will read aloud your incomming messages. You can play with the onboard navigation system...
If the onboard video faced forward I guess you never need to look outside. 

I have enough trouble staying upright now...don't need any more distractions.
Kevin

[ridefar]

Eventually I predict that both the vehicle manufacturer's and the device manufacturer's will be required to block signals to electronic devices like phones and computers when the vehicle is moving.  Anyone with a tenth of a brain understands that just passing state and local laws telling people not to text or talk on the phone while driving is a waste of legislative effort.  When the carnage becomes too high for the insurance companies to tolerate, they will be the ones to force the issue, just as they have on crash test requirements.  We are running out of ways to protect morons in cars from themselves, and now we need to start protecting their victims instead.  All the airbags and structural improvements in todays cars and trucks don't do a thing for the innocent folks these idiots run over every day, but they seem to make todays drivers think they are invincible so they don't care.  I for one am getting damned sick and tired of the whole thing.

Jerry

  Well said sir!

[Dan_Lockwood]

I know that I'm going to catch a big crapper load of chit for my comments, but after reviewing the video and thinking about this for a week, I have to comment.

I know what it's like to ride on rural areas, being a guy born and raised in the mid to northern part of Michigan.  Even relocating to the greater St. Louis metro area, albeit west of the Missouri River, there are parts that still remind me of being very rural when riding.

I have had more than a dozen car deer hits while driving cars, pickups or motor home while living in Michigan.  Here in my area deer are so rampant that some St. Louis ritzy titzy suburb communities are hiring outside deer control companies to cull the heard of deer within the city limits.  Some are using bows and others are actually driving with rifles equipped with silencers.  Now that's very scary.

I digress...

When I ride it's usually two up and my wife and I mainly ride secondary roads.  When it gets close to dusk we slow down and go even more on the defensive looking out for wildlife.  When it's dark I take it another step up and am paying attention to everything, including my mirrors.  I said Mirrors with a capital M.

I watch this video of the couple out enjoying a night ride or whatever they were doing and how they didn't notice the cop coming up on their ass.  At least it's a divided 4 lane, maybe an expressway.  I drive my car on freeways to and from work and almost as important as my view out the windshield is my rear view mirrors.  I always think about a "way out" if I have to stop and see someone not paying attention coming up way to fast on my ass.  I've had to take a detour to the center space next to the concrete barrier too many times to keep the car behind from hitting me.

That being said, was the couple that got hit oblivious to a pair of headlights coming up from behind on a straight road?  With a great shoulder to the right or the left lane to dip into, they may have had "some" options if they were attentive to their conditions and from behind.

There is no way in the world that the cop is getting out of this one as the "at fault" person, nor should he.  But all I'm saying is that defensive driving/riding is an important part of our everyday riding.

I also noticed that the camera timeline went from 45 min / 06 sec when he pulled off the road to the time you see him stopped on the road with over 46 min on the timer.  That's over a minute deleted from the video.  I wonder what was going on during that time that we can't see?

All I'm saying is that it WAS NOT HIS FAULT, but he may have been able to help himself out if he had noticed the car closing fast.

So let the commentaries fly.

[charles05663]

...

I also noticed that the camera timeline went from 45 min / 06 sec when he pulled off the road to the time you see him stopped on the road with over 46 min on the timer.  That's over a minute deleted from the video.  I wonder what was going on during that time that we can't see?

...

The trooper changing his pants after he...ummm...soiled them.

[lowflight]

I would think that most would agree that bike riders are the most defensive drivers on the road, hell we have to be!
I watch my mirrors allot as well, but events don't always work out that you see them and have reaction time to correct for someone else's chit driving. Thought I was going to be rear ended today. At the last second see them and my out would be worse, the result was no problem - I just left that clown too much room in the same lane so he could pass me on the right side! New bigger mirrors are on order!

[Dan_Lockwood]

Like I said, I'm NOT relieving the cop of any of his responsibilty in this accident.  He f#@*ed up big time.  If he's not fired, he's on a desk for the rest of his career.

It's easy for me to armchair quarterback this video and what I would have done, but that could have been my wife and I just as easily.

The bottom line is that it looks like the couple will recover, it could have been a LOT worse!

[spada84]

Trooper of the year 2012:

[spada84]

Now he's on Desk Duty:

http://www.whiotv.com/ap/ap/ohio/ohio-trooper-who-hit-motorcycle-put-on-desk-duty/nZ6wr/

[dlaws01]

Now he's on Desk Duty:

http://www.whiotv.com/ap/ap/ohio/ohio-trooper-who-hit-motorcycle-put-on-desk-duty/nZ6wr/

If it were left up to me he would be on the back of a pick up truck with a shovel scooping up road kill for the rest of his career.   

[TinSpinner]

How could he not be charged?!? Hopefully the grand jury indicts him unless there is a helluva lot more to his story than what has been presented. Obviously he wasn't suffering a heart attack since he was out checking his cruiser for damage, couldn't help but wonder for a moment if he was thinking about leaving when he checked his car before he checked the victims.

[mrmagloo]

it just amazes me that without a smoking gun video like that, in a similar rear end situation with a civilian, they'd already have the cell phone records parsed to the nth degree, and every electronic device analyzed to see what they were doing the split secodn this happened. Now doubt, if they were distracted at all, they'd start right off the bat talking about vehicular manslaughter or homicide, reckless driving, and umpteen other offenses. I can't believe the guy isn't on unpaid leave already.

[spada84]

Someone questioned speed in an earlier post.  Just looking at the lines flashing by ("The lines on the road just looked like dots") I figured he was well above the limit.

Federal standard for passing zone lines is 10 feet with a 30 foot spacing, or 40 feet per set.  Now my calculations are not totally accurate, because there is no .1 second display on the video.  However, I counted 15 stripes in 5 seconds of video.

(15x40)x(60/5)=
600x12=7200 FPM
7200x60=432000 FPH
432000/5280=81.8 MPH

Not sure exactly where this happened, but most of that road is 55mph (at least what I could see on Google Maps).  Only a very short sample of the bike before it is hit, but best reckoning is 5 stripes in 3 seconds.  This works out to 45.5 MPH.