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[VaEagle]

Not just a simple wreck here:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/newport-news/dp-nws-school-motorcycle-crash-20110611,0,4431217.story


dailypress.com
Update: Woman charged in motorcycle crash that caused fire at Newport News school
By David Macaulay and Ashley Kelly

4:25 PM EDT, June 12, 2011

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NEWPORT NEWS – A 27-year-old woman who crashed a motorcycle into a classroom at Warwick High School on Saturday morning was charged with reckless driving, according to police.

Amber Hendricks, of Hopewell, crashed the motorcycle into a mobile classroom which sparked a fire, according to police. Hendricks was also charged with not having a license to operate a motorcycle and operating an uninsured motorcycle, according to Lou Thurston, a Newport News police spokesman.

Police said it appeared Hendricks had been learning to ride a motorcycle in a parking lot at the school, when the accident occurred.

Hendricks was released from the hospital after suffering a number of broken bones in the accident at 10.34 a.m, according to Thurston.

Hendricks is working as a civilian at Fort Eustis in Newport News. Thurston said the mobile classroom was "severely damaged" in the fire.

Fire crews contained the blaze to a single building at Warwick High School.

Branko Radovanovic and his daughter Milica, whose home on Harpersville Road backs onto the Warwick High School parking lot, said the woman appeared to be receiving riding lessons from a man. They said she lost control of the motorcycle when she hit a curb and hit the mobile classroom.

[Arwyn]

Ouch! Tough 1st lesson on the bike!

[grc]

Real shame.  At least she was trying to do the right thing in a parking lot and not on a public highway.  Best bet is still the organized classes rather than having a friend or relative (who may or may not know how to teach someone) try to teach you.  Didn't see mention of what kind of bike she was on, but most of the classes I'm thinking of use very light and easy to handle bikes.

I hope this doesn't discourage her completely about riding.


Jerry

[Twolanerider]

Real shame.  At least she was trying to do the right thing in a parking lot and not on a public highway.  Best bet is still the organized classes rather than having a friend or relative (who may or may not know how to teach someone) try to teach you.  Didn't see mention of what kind of bike she was on, but most of the classes I'm thinking of use very light and easy to handle bikes.

I hope this doesn't discourage her completely about riding.


Jerry

That's something I won't do Jerry.  If a good friend or relative asks for "lessons" I turn them down everytime.  Too many of my own idiosyncracies that might not translate.  Plus it often involves or assumes borrowing a bike.  I'd teach a stranger with their own before someone I know.

[Keats]

Pop the clutch

pulls you back and you twist the wick

and panic ensues as you race to an unmovable object


not the first time this has happened.

in fact while trying to convince my young son not to be afraid of the XR80

His mother (my wife) decided to show him how easy this was...............

I gave her 30 seconds of instruction and pow

off she was.......

unfortunately is was straight towards the front end of my suburban, I waited as a blocker and pushed her away from the truck into a pile of bookcases.

needless to say my son was not convinced how safe it was.

[Chains]

That's something I won't do Jerry.  If a good friend or relative asks for "lessons" I turn them down everytime.  Too many of my own idiosyncracies that might not translate.  Plus it often involves or assumes borrowing a bike.  I'd teach a stranger with their own before someone I know.

Probably good advice Don, two weeks ago I had a deceased friend of mines son ask me and my buddy to teach him to ride his dads bike.  I advised him to take a riders course at the local HD dealer and we would go from there.  The worse part is the kid is small and his dad rode a Goldwing 1800.  I just have this fear of him falling down or worse wrecking it and injurying himself, so we will wait and see if he enrolls in a riders course.

[Twolanerider]

Probably good advice Don, two weeks ago I had a deceased friend of mines son ask me and my buddy to teach him to ride his dads bike.  I advised him to take a riders course at the local HD dealer and we would go from there.  The worse part is the kid is small and his dad rode a Goldwing 1800.  I just have this fear of him falling down or worse wrecking it and injurying himself, so we will wait and see if he enrolls in a riders course.

It's too easy for the familarity to breed complacency or casualness that might lead to a mistake.  Just something I'm not comfortable doing.

[Chains]

It's too easy for the familarity to breed complacency or casualness that might lead to a mistake.  Just something I'm not comfortable doing.

That's why we headed him towards a riders course, lost my friend two years ago, sure did not want to lead his son into a situation that would get him killed.

[Ironhorse]

Like all things, it's one thing to know how to do it, and it's a totally different thing to know how to teach it. We see it in the world of sports all the time. Just because someone has won a Super Bowl it does not mean they know how to coach a team, or even the position they played.

I don't want to second guess the guy who was teaching her, and I don't really know what happened. But if she did crack the throttle and pop the clutch and shoot off across the lot and over a curb, then perhaps she needed much more work with familiarization of the controls as well as proper hand position. Perhaps she still had not become familiar with the friction zone and smooth operation of the controls. Maybe she hadn't understood that by keeping the wrist down when holding the throttle, a rider lowers the risk of a runaway bike under wide open throttle.

She had the right idea in seeking instruction, but like others posted she may have been better served going to a professional.