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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Bruce Rossmeyer, owner of the largest collection of Harley Davidson dealerships killed in bike crash last week. (cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=225730)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Sturgis_SD_-_HD_Week.jpgWayne Gerdes - CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) - Aug. 3, 2009

Sturgis Bike Week – Currently in progress and safety appears to be not a priority :(

On a ride to the 69th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota last week, Bruce Rossmeyer, 66, of Ormond Beach, FL crashed his motorcycle while riding on a desolate Wyoming highway with friends. Rossmeyer, known as an icon within the Harley Davidson bike community, owns 15 Harley dealerships - including Boston Harley-Davidson in Everett and the flagship Daytona, FL, a store that’s billed as the largest in the world.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol said the six bikers were headed east on Highway 28 in Sweetwater County, WY when they found themselves trailing a Ford P/U truck pulling a camper trailer. The P/U truck driver, Robert L. VanValkenburg, 73, of Rock Springs, WY, slowed down and began making a left turn just as Rossmeyer tried to pass when they collided. Rossmeyer struck the driver’s side door and went down. Rossmeyer was not wearing a helmet and VanValkenburg’s turn signals and brake lights were working at the time of the crash according to the officers that reported from the scene.

A funeral service for Rossmeyer was held today in Ormond Beach, FL.

Bruce Rossmeyer is survived by his wife and five children.

Another senseless death while heading to Sturgis

Similarly, James Ingersoll of Riverside, Iowa died last Friday night from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident while also traveling to the same bike rally in Sturgis.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol said Ingersoll hit a camper he was following to closely and was thrown from his bike. He was not wearing a helmet and died later at a nearby hospital, the Patrol said.

Two senseless tragedies that could have easily been averted if the two riders in the two separate incidents were far less aggressive and wearing safety gear including helmets that all bikers should be wearing. The message has to be taught that riding both helmetless and aggressively it is not cool but simply dumb!

God speed to both Bruce and James as their families mourn their loss for years to come.

If anyone would have known better...it should have been him. :confused: - Dale

That was dumb.

Anytime a vehicle ahead of you slows down, turn signal or no turn signal, there is a reason it is slowing down, and it is almost always because the driver is about to turn. Rossmeyer should have been able to figure that out. And like I've said, you must always be in defensive mode on a motorcycle because you are vulnerable. When in doubt, back off. If you can't predict what the other driver is about to do, you must back off, buy time, and let the situation play out to give you the information you need.

I won't even comment on the no-helmet situation. The results say it all.

Harry

Time and time again the NO HELMET tough guy/person image that most Harley Riders want to portray leads to an early demise.
Here locally, the community is suffering through the near fatal crash of a bright young 19 year old girl that hit a deer on a Harley with no helmet. She was the valedictorian of her high school class a year ago. She was awarded the presidential scholarship to attend the local community college. This fall she was going to transfer to the University of Rolla (MO) to start to work on an engineering degree. She is also the young lady that makes the CleanMPG laser cut decals. She built the business up from the basic t-shirt equipment to a full fledge T-shirt, decal, cap or whatever you want labeled.

Today marks day 40 of her being in a coma. She had head trauma and has had quite a bit of her right frontal lobe removed to reduce pressure from swelling.
Other than that, the injuries were just a few broken bones that would heal o.k.

A Harley and NO HELMET!
So, So Sad

More detail on the wreck here:

http://www.examiner.com/x-6722-Miami-City-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Bruce-Rossmeyer-accident-report-what-really-happened

The roadway at the time of the crash was dry with clear weather conditions. Both vehicles were eastbound on WYO 28. Rossmeyer was traveling with a group of five other motorcycles. Rossmeyer was behind the VanValkenburg vehicle which was pulling a 2 axle camper style trailer. VanValkenburg braked and used his vehicles left turn signal to indicate he was going to make a turn from WYO 28 onto a small dirt road. VanValkenburg was in the process of making his left turn when Rossmeyer attempted to pass the VanValkenburg combination on the left. Rossmeyer collided into the drivers side door of the VanValkenburg pickup. The collision occurred near the westbound shoulder. After impact, Rossmeyer was ejected from the motorcycle and came to rest partially under the trailer near the passenger side tires. Troopers investigating this crash have determined that the turn signals and the brake lights were in working condition on the VanValkenburg combination. It is unknown why Rossmeyer did not see the turn signal/ brake lights.

Harry

I see stupid people doing stupid things every day. They pass me on double yellow lines. They tailgate <1 second behind the car in front of them. They pass me on the right from a merging lane. Their margin of safety goes way down when they're on motorcycles without helmets.

FWIW, I think we all have our stupid moments. It's always worth hesitating and giving it a second's appraisal when you get a sudden impulse.

A lot of bikers, astride Harleys or not, seem to do some pretty
senseless tailgating rather often. With no helmets. I cannot
imagine the kind of misplaced illusion of invincibility that's
going through their mind, well, just before the leading car's
trunk lid does.
.
Sometimes I think that funerals and other means of *honoring*
such people is a total waste of resources. How about simply
saying "let that be a lesson to the rest of you" as we kick
the remains into the ditch and let nature take its course?
.
_H*

Al, that's pretty harsh.

Many Harley-Davidson dealers have courses to learn how to bike, so Bruce Rossmeyer's death is a pretty embarrassing way to go....they would not let him do that at the course, nor as a businessman would he be likely to use such poor judgement.

There's a lot less margin for error on a motorcycle and it only takes a second's bad judgment on your part or on another driver's. Not wearing the helmet was pre-meditated, but may not have made a difference at highway speed anyway. I think I'd take one of senseless or self-inflicted out of the title--that's piling it on too thick for my taste.

Most everybody errs occasionally, some of us more often than that. I bet even Hobbit has a few goofs to his name.:eek:

Hi Rich:

___We all make mistakes but senseless and self-inflicted appear to match the reasons for these (2) accidents.

___Many a rider has survived a high-speed get off while helmeted. Not so much without. To ride without let alone passing a slowing driver is a typical maneuver for a bike rider and one that is as deadly as it is stupid.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I finally threw away a helmet a couple of years ago that was scarred by road rash back in my "younger years" when I was practicing riding a wheelie and shifting gears. I flipped backwards at 50+ mph. Helmets do work.

Not wearing the helmet was pre-meditated, but may not have made a difference at highway speed anyway.
A helmet helps at any speed. It's thought that horizontal velocity plays only a minor role in head injuries (barring sliding headfirst into a concrete wall). The usual killer is the vertical fall onto a hard surface. The human skull just isn't designed to do that, and a helmet - any helmet - helps. This is why wearing a bicycle helmet is probably even more important than a motorcycle helmet, as the vertical fall is even higher for a bicycle despite the lower speeds.

Working trackside, I saw many many horrific-looking motorcycle accidents that left only minor (or no) injuries thanks to helmets, protective apparel (leathers), gloves, and boots. That's why deaths like this one seem so utterly senseless. Especially because a lot of this was covered nearly 30 years ago in the carefully documented Hurt Report (http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~john/vfr/hurt.html).

I lost my biological father in a left turn motorcyle crash like this one, I don't know if he was wearing a helmet.

That sucks man. Losing a loved one for any reason is tough but not having one because of an accident seems so hard to accept and preventable. :( - Dale

"If the world's ethical standards fail to rise with the advances of our technological revolution, the world will go to hell. Let us remember that in the horse-and-buggy days nobody got hurt if the coachman had a drink too many. In our times of high-powered automobiles, however, that same drink may be fatal....

That was dumb.

Anytime a vehicle ahead of you slows down, turn signal or no turn signal, there is a reason it is slowing down, and it is almost always because the driver is about to turn. Rossmeyer should have been able to figure that out. And like I've said, you must always be in defensive mode on a motorcycle because you are vulnerable. When in doubt, back off. If you can't predict what the other driver is about to do, you must back off, buy time, and let the situation play out to give you the information you need.

I won't even comment on the no-helmet situation. The results say it all.

Harry

+1. Well said.

Time and time again the NO HELMET tough guy/person image that most Harley Riders want to portray leads to an early demise.
Here locally, the community is suffering through the near fatal crash of a bright young 19 year old girl that hit a deer on a Harley with no helmet. She was the valedictorian of her high school class a year ago. She was awarded the presidential scholarship to attend the local community college. This fall she was going to transfer to the University of Rolla (MO) to start to work on an engineering degree. She is also the young lady that makes the CleanMPG laser cut decals. She built the business up from the basic t-shirt equipment to a full fledge T-shirt, decal, cap or whatever you want labeled.

Today marks day 40 of her being in a coma. She had head trauma and has had quite a bit of her right frontal lobe removed to reduce pressure from swelling.
Other than that, the injuries were just a few broken bones that would heal o.k.

A Harley and NO HELMET!
So, So Sad
I wonder what would have happened had she been driving an Aptera instead. I bet the injuries would be far less severe. The higher MPG would be an added bonus.

If she survives, it could be interesting to present the Aptera to her. ("You remember the Harley that almost killed you? Here's a motorcycle that keeps you safe and comfortable in an aerodynamic composite shell. No helmet needed. Oh yeah, it gets 300 MPG as well.")

For that matter, she could be part of an Aptera commercial. ("This beautiful, smart young girl was (almost) killed in a motorcycle crash. She's be fine had she been driving the Aptera with advanced safety features such as a composite shell, seat belts, and airbags. Aptera: the safest motorcycle in the world.")

Hi NiHaoMike:

___Although the Aptera will be safer than any bike; it is not a bike...

___I was speaking to Harry about this during our BMW rides around the North East last month. An automobile driver misses the smell of a BBQ while passing a subdivision, the smell of pine when riding through a forested area, the smell of Dew early in the morning and the wide open vista's you completely miss from the inside of a car. If you are not a biker or have not ridden a bike, there is no way I can describe to you what you are missing. Riding Off-road motorcycles for well over 40-years and on-road ones for almost 20 (on and off), enjoying some of what this earth has provided is simply absent to those in automobiles.

___Additionally, the Aptera will probably be a $30 + K vehicle. A decent 60 + mpg rated bike starts around $3K.

___I will promote bikes for fuel savings for both the everyday commuter in a non-congested location and enjoying the open road but only with all the proper gear which not only includes a DOT/SNELL2005 certified helmet but some kind of reflective or bright clothing, gloves, boots and leather or synthetic jacket and pants. Most importantly, an extremely non-aggressive yet completely aware riding style similar to the way we hypermile. Doing the right thing removes possibly 50% of the risk by comparison to driving an automobile and the additional 50% is what smart bikers will simply have to live with.

___There is no way a bike will ever come close to the safety of an automobile and bike riders accept that but saying to hell with safety gear because someone’s ego will be bruised by wearing a helmet or riding aggressively to impress friends when bikes are already far more likely to be involved in a severe accident than a car is just plain and simple, dumb.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

My daily commute passes a memorial to a helmeted rider I saw die on a 45 mph curve seven years ago. (I didn't see the accident, but I saw the EMT's start CPR.) Sober, 40ish, experienced rider, no skid marks or broken glass and they never located any witnesses. Apparently he was distracted somehow and missed the curve.

The memory keeps me from shopping for a bike.

Although the Aptera will be safer than any bike; it is not a bike...
It's not a bike (it's a "tadpole" trike), but it is a motorcycle.

I don't see any reason why a bike motorcycle couldn't have a similar aerodynamic shell, though. It would enhance both safety and efficiency.

You mean like this?

http://www.youtube.com/v/VbdkZB9-Sd4&hl=en&fs=1

Al, that's pretty harsh.

But true, unfortunately. We all do dumb things from time to time, myself included. Passing a vehicle that you know darn well is attempting to make a turn is beyond stupid. If he got killed doing this, I have to wonder how many time she engaged in similar behavior and just didn't have to pay the consequences. The same holds true for sports car owners driving as though they're auditioning for a BMW ad.

I know a number of responsible riders who have had close call with idiots driving 4 wheels, and vice versa. I'm not saying all bike riders are wrong, though the reality of serious and lasting injury or death doesn't seem to register at times. On more than 1 occasion, Ive had to wonder if people actually thought about what action got them into a particular situation before it happened. Did he actually think about this, and the insanity of it, before passing a huge, decelerating vehicle?

I was referring to his suggestion to let corpses rot in the ditches rather than giving them burials because of stupid and dangerous behavior leading to death.

That bike Jeremy was riding in was pretty cool. Maybe I just like motorcycles w/ shells

I was referring to his suggestion to let corpses rot in the ditches rather than giving them burials because of stupid and dangerous behavior leading to death.

I saw it more as graphic hyperbole. Gives a new meaning to "road kill." At any rate, I'd love that nice new bike that keeps out the elements, if only I could find a place to drive it with no trucks, SUVs or distracted drivers I'd feel safe...

That harshness was sort of a deliberate statement. We in this
country have a really funny way of dealing with death, that often
takes entirely too much of the survivors' resources and seems
to assign an oddly misplaced "respect" regardless of how any
given person was while alive. I'm sure that after the fact,
thousands of dollars were spent on funerary arrangements for
this guy. Ask yourself, are such things really warranted in
nearly as many cases as we seem to deal with? It's usually
quite wasteful. If the bereaved decide that such measures are
worth some modicum of feel-good value after the fact and they
have the funding means then I suppose they can go for it, but
one must consider whether they're doing it because they've been
subject to a merciless barrage of societal influence that it's
"proper" or if it really provides some objective benefit. If
we all had a more sensible approach to this, you wouldn't have
that immediate "ooh, that's harsh" reaction just because we
happen to be talking about expired humans.
.
If I took myself out because of doing something stupid, or even
if a victim of external circumstances ... I would *not* want
anyone to jump through any hoops than the absolute minimum to
clean up. And I'd feel bad in advance that I put someone
through even that much trouble because of whatever happened.
It is far too often turned into a ridiculous drain on our
lives and society. Memorials, bah. None of us are really
that important. For me? Recover any useful working parts if
possible and/or worth the trouble, compost whatever's left
over back into the natural cycle of things and move on.
.
_H*

Sorry, Al -- I hold human life sacred. Regardless of what you do or do not do, that life holds value by merit of its existence as a precious gift. You may regard your body as a mere disposable machine, but it is a home for that miracle we call "human" and deserves some respect for serving this role.

Call me old fashioned, superstitious, misguided, or what have you -- we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Al,

It was not moderating funeral expenses that got the reaction but treating the dead like roadkill that offended...."kicking a dead horse" does not speak well for anyone that does so.