Articles Posted in Motorcycle Accidents

Let’s start holding the supplier of alcohol responsible for accidents caused by intoxicated drivers.

A 21-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of felony driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs after she allegedly hit and killed a motorcyclist on the 101 Freeway and then abandoned her car and hitched a ride home with a passing motorist. According to an article posted on Fox News’ Web site, Stephanie Nordberg was taken into custody in her home early Friday morning, several hours after the alleged incident.

Police said the crash happened at about 10:40 Thursday night north of Highland Avenue when Nordberg’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo hit a motorcyclist traveling in the number three lane. The rider, identified only as a 33-year-old Palmdale man, was driving a custom-made two-wheeler to the home of its owner, who was following in a nearby vehicle, according to the article.

Nordberg’s Chevy then careened and hit the center divider where it was hit by a 2006 Toyota Solara. The 28-year-old woman who was driving that car was fortunately not hurt. Officials say Nordberg then left her vehicle on that freeway near the scene of the crash and then flagged down a passing motorist who reportedly drove her home. Meanwhile paramedics took the motorcyclist to a local hospital where he died, the report said.

What a tragedy for the young man and his family! It is beyond me how someone can cause a severe injury accident and not do whatever they can for the injured and immediately leave the scene, seemingly like nothing happened. I am trusting that Nordberg, if she was the at-fault driver, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Years in jail would not be too harsh for causing a hit-and-run fatal accident, especially while intoxicated.
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The motorcycle rider who died Saturday as a result of a collision with a truck on the Riverside Freeway has been identified as Calvin Moody, 34-years-old of Compton, California.

The motorcycle accident occurred in the westbound lanes of the 91 Freeway near Gypsum Canyon Road according to the Orange County Sheriff-Corner, Larry Esslinger, as reported by the CBS2 website.

Moody was declared dead at about 5:00 p.m. Saturday in Anaheim at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital after colliding with the truck about an hour earlier.
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A 22-year-old motorcyclist who is completely disabled after he was struck by a drunk driver will receive a $704,649 settlement from the insurer for an Indiana bar where the drunk driver that caused the accident had been drinking, according to an article published in the Journal and Courier newspaper.

Christopher Harmon is said to be in a “waking coma” after he suffered a severe brain injury in the Sept. 2, 2004 crash. According to the newspaper article, his parents quit their full-time jobs, sold their home and bought a house in Indiana just to take care of their son. The parents accepted the settlement from Jake’s Roadhouse bar’s insurer in return for releasing the bar from further liability.

According to a civil tort claim filed by the Harmons on their son’s behalf, 24-year-old Nicole Fox who had been drinking at Jake’s caused three oncoming motorcyclists to crash with her erratic driving. Fox’s blood alcohol level was 0.23 percent – almost three times the legal limit for driving in Indiana, which is 0.08 percent. Harmon suffered brain injuries while another 47-year-old man, Jerome E. Raiff lost part of his left arm and leg.
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A former Navy seaman, who has survived two tours in Iraq without an injury, almost died June 14 when a suspected drunk driver struck him on the freeway near Torrance, according to a news report in the Daily Breeze. Brandon Wexler, 23, is still in critical condition and needs to undergo more surgeries to repair his damaged bladder, crushed pelvis and broken femur.

The accident occurred on the 110 Freeway at Alondra Boulevard when Wexler got hit from behind, hurtled through the air into a traffic lane where a sport utility vehicle then rolled over his body at 65 mph, the article said. It’s interesting to note that Wexler was actually on the freeway with members of his motorcycle club trying to help another injured SUV driver.

But as Wexler slowed to 50 mph to stop, the suspected drunk driver hit him from behind at 70 mph. He underwent six hours of surgery and told the newspaper what he said to his grandma: “I survived Iraq, I’m not going to die in Torrance.” After he recovers completely, Wexler hopes to get back on his motorcycle.
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A motorcycle accident in Southern California takes the life of a Vista man who was hit and killed early Tuesday morning after he crashed his motorcycle into the back of a slow-moving truck and was then run over by an oncoming van, according to a news report posted on the San Diego Union Tribune’s Web site.

Mark Anthony Blecher, 37, was riding eastbound on Sycamore Avenue in Vista and was just east of Hot Springs Way when he came up on a cement truck that was having mechanical problems and emitting black smoke, which limited visibility, according to San Diego Sheriff’s officials.

The truck was being driven slowly uphill when Blecher crashed into the back of it. He was thrown to the ground and was then hit by a van being driven by a 49-year-old man from Vista who was also heading eastbound, according to the article. That driver stopped after the accident but the truck’s driver, apparently unaware that someone hit him, continued on to his workplace, a company in Vista, and didn’t learn about the accident until he got there, according to the article.
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San Francisco Bay Area officials are looking for a hit-and-run driver believed to have fatally struck a 52-year-old motorcyclist Monday morning on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, according to a news report by Bay City News Service posted on the San Jose Mercury News’ Web Site.

The suspect’s car was found abandoned later that morning in a toll plaza parking lot, but authorities haven’t found the driver, according to the report.

Timothy Haagensen, a Concord resident, was killed around 5 a.m. as he was riding his 2000 Harley Davidson motorcycle in a left-side lane of westbound Interstate 80 just east of the toll plaza. California Highway Patrol officials said a witness saw a black 1990 four-door Honda ahead of Haagensen make an unsafe lane change into Haagensen’s lane, which caused the front end of Haagensen’s 2000 Harley Davidson to strike the Honda’s driver’s side door and Haagensen to lose control of his bike and get thrown about 100 yards east of the toll booths. The driver did not stop after hitting the motorcyclist, officials said.
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