Motorcyclist killed in IL

[GreezMunky]

Sorry, one more sad story.. Just another reminder to ALWAYS watch the cagers, especially sitting at a red light.

http://www.brainbucketmag.com/News/a.../sid=4712.html

The Lake County State's Attorney's office says it's looking into criminal charges against a woman who allegedly was painting her fingernails while driving and fatally struck a stopped motorcyclist over the weekend.

Illinois - "We are looking into charges in the case," Assistant State's Atty. Patricia Fix said this morning. "But we are waiting for results of blood and urine tests and waiting for the results of an accident reconstruction, as well as any other technical evidence we can derive from the scene."

Authorities say Anita Zaffke, of the 1500 block of Eddy Lane in Lake Zurich, stopped at the intersection of Route 12 and Old McHenry Road at around 5:45 p.m. Saturday as the traffic light turned from green to yellow.

The driver of a Chevrolet Impala behind Zaffke, Lora Hunt, 48, of Morris, told police "she was painting her nails as she drove and did not see [the motorcycle] until contact was already made," according to a Lake County Sheriff's Department incident report.
Zaffke, who was wearing a helmet, was thrown a distance from her Honda motorcycle, according to Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller. Her son, Greg, said this morning his mother was also wearing a bright yellow cycling jacket.

"It appears to be a tragic accident and it appears [Zaffke] did nothing wrong," Lake County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Scott Morrison said Sunday. "She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and she could not have done anything to avoid it."

Zaffke died about an hour after the crash at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, Keller said. An autopsy was scheduled for this morning.

Hunt was cited with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. She could not be reached for comment this morning.

Source: Chicago Tribune

[Snake]

Doing anything other than driving in your cage should be illega. Texting, talking on cell phone, doing make-up, shaving with electric razor, eating, etc.
It demands as much attention as riding a bike.

[mike_sema]

sad just sad

[TnNinjaGirl]

That is tragic and sickening. Thoughts and prayers are with this family.

[BlueTyke]

Rip rider!

[tinng321]

women...women...women... We can't live without them...
the other day, I was on I-287 S heading to work and there was a lady who was appling her makeup while driving.
a minute of silence please.......................................................................... ................................................................................ ................................................................................ .............................

[g21-30]

Unfortunately, we all need to learn from this incident. As the motor officer course, which I recently offered everyone on this forum, states "you're not in control of your bike, if you have both feet on the ground, when stopped at an intersection!" You should have the bike in gear, with your left foot on the ground and your right foot on its peg, with clutch and throttle ready for action and constantly watching your surroundings, especially behind you! If you're not first in line, don't pull up to the vehicle in front and don't stop in a straight line behind the vehicle. Before you stop, decide which way you're going if you need to evade a vehicle approaching from the rear and angle the bike in that direction, either \ or /, but never | with plenty of room between you and the vehicle in front!!!!

Many of us have installed the brake light modulator on our bikes, but don't let that be your only precaution. The female cager in this travesty proved that some people don't pay attention when they drive. If you can call that driving.

Let's all remember this accident and try to prevent it from happening again!

[M-Oorb]

Wait I am somewhat confused. The sheriff said that the driver appeared to do nothing wrong was just in the wrong place at the wrong time...but didn't she admit to painting her nails while driving? If she(and the sheriff) truly think she did nothing wrong then he should be sent on a leave of absence and I would hope she loses her license for a very long time. Its a shame to see a thing like this happen as this just turns other off to the idea of riding. Just reminds us all how aware we need to be of our surroundings as soon as we sit on our ninjettes.

[TnNinjaGirl]

He remarked that the rider did nothing wrong, not the cager.

[JaeL]

Originally Posted by M-Oorb

Wait I am somewhat confused. The sheriff said that the driver appeared to do nothing wrong was just in the wrong place at the wrong time...but didn't she admit to painting her nails while driving? If she(and the sheriff) truly think she did nothing wrong then he should be sent on a leave of absence and I would hope she loses her license for a very long time. Its a shame to see a thing like this happen as this just turns other off to the idea of riding. Just reminds us all how aware we need to be of our surroundings as soon as we sit on our ninjettes.

Zaffke did nothing wrong.

[M-Oorb]

Oops..thanks for the correction

[Strider]

People like this are why I ride like every cage is out to run over me ...

The cager admitted to "painting her nails" while she was driving.
TOTAL disregard for anyone else on the road.
Makes her guilty of manslaughter at the least IMO

RIP Anita Zaffke ... my prayers go out to her son and the rest of her family ...

[ARF07]

So terribly sad. Her family is in my prayers. If there is any justice in this life, this cager will (at the very least) never operate a vehicle again in her life.

[250Rocket]

Were's a gun when you need one. Sometimes i think survival of the fittest is a load of BS and that we need to help it along.

Speaking of stupid drivers have you ever heard of somebody stopping at a green light to let pedestrians cross?

Happend today. I was following a car along a 20 mph road and theres a light, it's not an intersection, just a light along a 2 way road and it's installed for the sole purpose of letting pedestrians cross while both direction get reds.

So the idiot come to a stop and i slow down and am doing about 5mph and i pull beside him. At this point i stopped and saw that he was letting a pedestrian cross so i let her cross and i smoked the guy and that was that.

Was i wrong in doing that. I mean who stops at a green light. I just feared somebody would do the same...hit me from behind seeing that the light was green.

[bob706]

Brake light modulator might have helped. Not painting her f-ing nails most certainly would have helped. Very sad story.

[kawibelle]

I heard about this on the radio this morning. People just don't think. My mom was killed on the back of my dad's gold wing 13 years ago. It was early morning, they were traveling back from TX. Just south of Roanoke, VA, a young girl moved to the left lane on the interstate to pass the car ahead of her. After passing, she moved back into the right lane, never noticing my parents' bike. She slammed them into a guard rail. The guard rail stopped my dad, but my mom flew down a 200 ft embankment. My dad spent six months in the hospital.

I really can't understand why more emphasis isn't put on motorcycle awareness during drivers' license exams and driver training. I have become the one who flips out anytime a car swerves in front of us, rides up behind us, or does anything idiotic around a bike. We have enough to worry about from cars who can't see us, we don't need more people doing stupid things when they do see us!

[Apex]

Originally Posted by rcuriel

Doing anything other than driving in your cage should be illega. Texting, talking on cell phone, doing make-up, shaving with electric razor, eating, etc.
It demands as much attention as riding a bike.

Don't forget:

Changing radio station
Changing CD's in the radio
having a bag accessible in the front seat
etc


This kind of stuff ticks me off. The rider faced the same fate that people do who get hit by a drunk driver. This driver made it through just fine, just as a drunk driver typically does.

[TnNinjaGirl]

That's tragic, Kelly. My sympathy.

I wonder what the woman has to say for herself. I bet she would have been paying attention if she knew a fully loaded big rig were behind her.

[OldGuy]

It really makes you think. I'm sure we will all be more alert for a while on both our bikes and in our cages. Thoughts and prayers are with the family.

[athimmel]

Originally Posted by g21-30

Unfortunately, we all need to learn from this incident. As the motor officer course, which I recently offered everyone on this forum, states "you're not in control of your bike, if you have both feet on the ground, when stopped at an intersection!" You should have the bike in gear, with your left foot on the ground and your right foot on its peg, with clutch and throttle ready for action and constantly watching your surroundings, especially behind you! If you're not first in line, don't pull up to the vehicle in front and don't stop in a straight line behind the vehicle. Before you stop, decide which way you're going if you need to evade a vehicle approaching from the rear and angle the bike in that direction, either \ or /, but never | with plenty of room between you and the vehicle in front!!!!

Many of us have installed the brake light modulator on our bikes, but don't let that be your only precaution. The female cager in this travesty proved that some people don't pay attention when they drive. If you can call that driving.

Let's all remember this accident and try to prevent it from happening again!

Good reminders. Even if we've been riding a long time, things like this stress the need to stay awake and don't assume that nothing will happen to us at a stop light. Too many idiots out there who think that driving is a right, and not a privilege.

[TrueFaith]

Originally Posted by g21-30

Unfortunately, we all need to learn from this incident. As the motor officer course, which I recently offered everyone on this forum, states "you're not in control of your bike, if you have both feet on the ground, when stopped at an intersection!" You should have the bike in gear, with your left foot on the ground and your right foot on its peg, with clutch and throttle ready for action and constantly watching your surroundings, especially behind you! If you're not first in line, don't pull up to the vehicle in front and don't stop in a straight line behind the vehicle. Before you stop, decide which way you're going if you need to evade a vehicle approaching from the rear and angle the bike in that direction, either \ or /, but never | with plenty of room between you and the vehicle in front!!!!

Many of us have installed the brake light modulator on our bikes, but don't let that be your only precaution. The female cager in this travesty proved that some people don't pay attention when they drive. If you can call that driving.

Let's all remember this accident and try to prevent it from happening again!

It sounds to me like the rider didn't have much of a chance in this accident. Good advice, but if you're not looking in your mirror at the right second and see it coming in time to do something, you're history.
These are the people they need to go after. The ones that bear no sense of responsibility at all when they get behind the wheel. They need to be taken off the street and kept off them permanently. More people than ever before are doing whatever they want when they should be driving and getting away with it until something like this happens. Little or no emphasis is given in driver training to how exposed and vulnerable a motorcyclist is. People run over their own children in their own driveway all the time lately. It's not going to get any better. The future just holds even dumber drivers and more of them. All you can do is watch your ass and try to get out of these idiot's trajectory if you possibly can. RIP.

[mcteague]

Twice, in the last week, while driving to work on I95 I had cars move into my lane nearly hitting me. Both were applying makeup to their eyelashes via that little brush on a stick. Even if they were not concerned for the safety of others you would think they would be afraid of putting an eye out. Amazing, twice in one week. Different drivers too. One of the cars came up next to be a bit later and now the woman was on her pink cell phone.

Tim

[Apex]

It would be nice to see a law that made operating a motorcycle mandatory below the age of 21 if a person wishes to utilize personal transportation. The person would learn awareness, respect motorcycles and think twice about underage drinking, since the bike requires so much balance. From that point on they would be more aware of motorcycles and fully understand the dangers involved. And since most kids want to get a vehicle at the age of 16, or 18 in some places, that would give them several years of training on a bike. Just three years of riding a motorcycle would do wonders for rider awareness.

Of course that is just a pipe dream, since I know nothing would ever pass. I think a tax applied to drivers under 21 for operating a 4-wheeled vehicle would help lead some to cycles. Maybe a tax on large vehicles like huge SUV's and pickups would work too. Get more people into smaller vehicles and bikes. I have been to Spain, France, Italy, Ireland and the UK, and the US has it all wrong. We need to impose a huge gas-guzzler tax on large vehicles (that are not used for business purposes) to help get people into smaller ones, or raise the cost of gas. I for one have driven in Ireland and I wouldn't have to think twice about riding over there. People can actually drive over there and pay so much more attention. There or the UK, I'd own a bike.


I'll stop my ranting

[SpyderGirl]

If you're moving you should be doing nothing but looking where you are going and with both hands on the wheel. My hubby, who is a motorcyclist too, has been guilty of this in the past. We're working on it.

If you ask me, everyone should have to commute on a motorcycle once or twice in traffic to get an idea of what it feels like to be vunerable and have people not see you. Maybe those people would pay more attention when they are behind the wheel of their cages. We see them, they need to see us. Sometimes accidents happen, but a lot of times those accidents should have never happened.

My mom preaches on how dangerous motorcycles are and I remind her that it's mostly dangerous because of the drivers of automobiles simply not paying attention and looking out for us.

[capt_bugaloo]

Originally Posted by 250Rocket

Was i wrong in doing that. I mean who stops at a green light. I just feared somebody would do the same...hit me from behind seeing that the light was green.

I guess it depends on the situation. If I saw someone, say a little kid, who looked like they might dart across the road at the last second, and I looked behind me and no one was close, I might well stop and wait for the kid to cross. Don't know the situation you describe, though...

[Strider]

Anyone seen this?

Kill A Biker, Go To Jail Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/sabiker/petition.html

Think this over before you sign it :
After re-reading it again I (and others) found it too vague ... it's a nice idea, but it isn't too clear ...

[SpyderGirl]

Thanks for sharing. I signed it and passed it along.
Posted via Mobile Device

[TnNinjaGirl]

We took all the Mothers in our family out to Outback Steakhouse for dinner last night...

A man comes up to me and says, "I didn't see you." I'm thinking to myself "who is this guy."

Man: "I didn't see you on your bike."
CB: "I'm sorry...?"
Man: "When I pulled onto Pleasant Ridge, I almost hit you."
CB: "Thank you for missing me."
Man: "Just be more careful next time."
CB: "Ok, I will, thanks for the warning."

I had no idea what he was talking about. There was no one behind me on that road. Only one person was in front of me. He had pulled out of a side street in a big, black SUV. But he had done so in a timely manner with plenty of distance. I told my family and they said the guy must have been blind not to see my helmet (which apparently is noticable several counties away).

There were alot of old people out on the streets yesterday. There was a definate change in traffic patterns. All-in-all, I'm glad the mystery man didn't hit me, though I have no idea how he could have.