Biker killed on the Dragon

[Redbird]

Trucks should be banned from any road, highway or goat trail they aren't able to stay within their own lane on. Period.

That would effectively restrict them to the interstate. My routes have me in the more "suburban" areas of cities like Jackson, MS., New Orleans, LA., Baton Rouge, LA., etc. Not "downtown" mind you, mainly because the stores I deliver to aren't in the downtown areas. But even in the outlying areas I routinely have to cross into other lanes when negotiating corners. Because, quite frankly, when most stores engineer/design their entrance/exit driveways they only think of how pretty it looks for the customer, and neglect to take into account how the trucks bringing in their merchandise are suppose to get in/out. This goes for city planners as well.
It's not uncommon for me to stop in the roadway (in my lane) and have to wait for the sidestreet traffic to move along so that I can use the oncoming lanes of the sidestreet to make a right turn. Or when I exit that same sidestreet, I have to cross over the double yellow (or pull across two/three same direction lanes) in order to make a right turn. This is required so I don't roll the trailer over curbs, signposts, utility poles, bus stop benches, pedestrians, etc. I've been doing this for roughly 20 years now with (knock on wood) nary a scrape. Some of it's luck, some of it's skill. All of it is about being a responsible, conscientious driver.
Again, I'm not pointing fingers. Nor am I condoning anyones actions. I don't know why the truck was on the Dragon, or why the rider couldn't stop in time. But all this "banning" talk sounds alot like the people who want motorcycles banned because they saw on the news that some D-bag was speeding on one wheel through a school zone and killed himself/someone else.

 

[Redbird]

It is well warned to find an alternate route on both ends of The Dragon with plenty of places to turn a rig around. So even if you didn't know what you were driving into, you have ample warning what is ahead.

And in all fairness, there are warnings of "Beware of trucks on the dragon" posted as well. I've seen them.
It's also been posted almost ad nauseum on every two wheeled forum on the net. "Watch for trucks on the dragon, they take up the whole road...", "Truck got stuck on the dragon, blocked both lanes...", etc. Enough that it's nearly common knowledge.
As Catseye stated, I also try not to ride/drive beyond my ability to react to unexpected situations. If anyone is operating a motor vehicle beyond those same capabilities, then they are part of the problem as well. In my opinion, the truck was only slightly more urgent a situation than a stalled car, but much less urgent than a speeding car/bike who crossed over center headed toward you. So, if you remove the truck from the equation, since "he had no business being there". Would we still be here cursing stalled/speeding cars/bikes?

Btw, I'm not mad, emotional, or trying to attack anyone. To me this is a discussion. I hope everyone else sees it as the same

 

[lingo]

I think that this more of a problem with today's society. Every one is more concerned with themselves than what is better for everyone as a whole. Should big trucks be on the Dragon? Not really. But as Redbird has stated, it is a federally maintained road so they have the same right as everyone else. It isn't that much different than the Lexus that passed me on a double yellow, in a blind curve, in the rain last weekend because I was riding the speed limit. People are too focused on themselves and don't care how their decisions effect others around them. We will never be a courteous society again. This is a tragic accident which will unfortunately happen again and again. Be careful out there.

 

[Chimera Moto Works]

I live 10 minutes from U.S. 129, and Redbird, you may not mean it to seem so, but it comes across to me as if you're tryin to defend the truckers. Now, i'm okay with that. I actually understand that people are stupid, sometimes can't read a map, ignore all 30 signs/shops/etc. that say U.S. 129 Dragon(318 curves in 11 miles posted Everywhere), and/or sometimes generally just really don't know what they're getting into.

With that said, there isn't an 18 wheeler that Can stay in its own lane on U.S. 129. Every truck, and a majority of cages, just don't seem to know how to control 4 wheels at 25-35mph without staying in a lane. (I understand the length and the 18 wheels of a semi, and in fact thats why I Know/Understand them ending up halfway in other lanes. You just can't control that length and size thru zig zags.

I'm generally rambling, i'm not attacking your opinion redbird, just stating things I can see on a daily basis if I wanted too. (I only occasionally ride the dragon on my bikes and I live next door, that should tell you how safe I feel the dragon is.)

With all of that blah blah blah, its legally a highway. So until the state/states were to find a way to define it as something else, trucks will travel 129, and everyone should just be aware in case they run into such a situation. I can tell you from experience though, that coming around a corner, with a semi 1/3rd in your lane right at the same time/apex of you coming thru a tight corner on a bike, is f*cking scary considering how rough/tight 129 gets in certain areas.

 

[Chimera Moto Works]

I think that this more of a problem with today's society. Every one is more concerned with themselves than what is better for everyone as a whole. Should big trucks be on the Dragon? Not really. But as Redbird has stated, it is a federally maintained road so they have the same right as everyone else. It isn't that much different than the Lexus that passed me on a double yellow, in a blind curve, in the rain last weekend because I was riding the speed limit. People are too focused on themselves and don't care how their decisions effect others around them. We will never be a courteous society again. This is a tragic accident which will unfortunately happen again and again. Be careful out there.

This sums up a lot of my feelings which took me 3 paragraphs of just rambling to try to say. +1 lingo!

 

[Redbird]

Well... I'm "Defending" trucks in general. But not so much Defending as pointing out the other side of the coin. And I am in no way defending the actions of this driver, or any other driver in particular.

 

[troybilt]

First my condolences go out the the family and friends. Really sad to read about something like this. With that said, I'm glad something is being exposed with this thread and that it's being discussed. I happen to live in an area with major truck traffic. We also have similar terrain and roads. We also deal with very bad drivers. There is only a thin yellow line that protects us from on coming traffic. If we think that line is really going to protect us we are fooling ourselves. Drivers are going to cross that line. Here, trucks must often cross the line to negotiate the roads. There are many turns that trucks have jackknifed in. WE must count on this happening. It is a way of life and if we don't ride within our abilities we dramatically increase the risk of something very bad happening.

Edit: Swagger I totally agree about the national truck ban. Wouldnt it be wonderful to not have to deal with them! However it aint going to happen. Too many people depend on their deliveries. Too many walmarts and even mom and pop shops depend on them. Here its coal trucks and now with all the drilling going on its chemical trucks (yep pumped right into the head waters for drinking water for much of the south east, but that's another story) but without those coal trucks there'd be no coal getting to many of the electric plants. Ask me how much I hate trucks. I hate em. Dirty, slow, dangerous and no where to pass etc, etc, etc. Put the shit back on the trains (although this would only take most of the trucks off the road. We'd still need quite a few), but it aint gonna happen. Unfortunately, I think they are here to stay.

Anyhow, we need to stack the odds back in our favor.
We can chose when and what roads we are willing to ride on. I tend to ride more in the daytime and chose to stay off roads with heavy truck traffic.

Anyway back to the Dragon. I've watched videos of that stretch of road. I've witness on the videos the blind double line passing and even heard many other bad stories. Recently I made a decision not to ride on that stretch of road. My friends don't even know why. It wasn't because of my riding group but due to how popular that stretch of road is and how aggressive people drive and ride that stretch. I would have loved to have ridden with my friends but there are too many variables on that stretch of road for me to be comfortable.
I'm not saying the truck was at fault or the bike. What we can take from this is we just gotta be aware of all the variables and do what ever we can to stack the odds in our favor. Just my .02

Troy