Bike Week Carnage

[lokheed]

Every year about this time in Daytona they have Bike Week, a ten day long festival for motorcyclists. Every year there is a string of deaths, bikers killed in accidents that are almost always their fault. Last year ten bikers died over the course of the event. This year's event started on Saturday, and so far three bikers have died - two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Last night's fatality was caused by a biker who was riding on the wrong side of the road down US1 and collided with two other motorcycles.

Offhand, I can't think of any other festival in the U.S. in which it is the expected and predictable outcome that participants will kill themselves as a direct result of participating in the event, at least on per day for the duration of the event. It just boggles my mind every year.

Comments

[kajagoogoo.livejournal.com]

You forgot the elderly woman stuck and killed by a motorcyclist.

[lokheed.livejournal.com]

I don't even know if the figure of 10 fatalities last year is just motorcyclists, or if it includes random passers-by caught up in the carnage. Just out of curiosity I did a quick google search for deaths at Burning Man, on the assumption that it seems like an inherently dangerous kind of event. I found lots of mentions of heat related illnesses, and of course plenty of drug related citations, but no deaths. I gather that the people who go to Burning Man take safety very seriously, and do a good job of policing themselves regarding the safety of the attendees. So there you go.

I don't know a thing about motorcycles or the whole biker culture. Perhaps there is something I am missing. It just seems like every year since I moved here, all I hear about during Bike Week is the number of fatalities. WTF is up with the people who plan and execute the event that they can't, you know, keep all of their attendees alive?

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Well, there is the Houston Hara-Kiri festival. Not sure if people are killing themselves because of the theme or because they're stuck in Houston. ;-)

Does the Sturgis Bike Week have similar fatality numbers?

[lokheed.livejournal.com]

I notice that the wikipedia article for the Daytona Bike Week event has an entire section on fatalities and injuries, whereas the entry for the Sturgis Bike Week does not. I know nothing about the Sturgis event, although from reading the wikipedia article I gather that it is generally a more family friendly event. The entire vibe I get from the Daytona event (and again, this is just a casual, non-biker living somewhat nearby the event kind of perspective) is that the Daytona event has a general "Eff You" attitude towards the general public. I am aware of some other big rides that happen in the area that are much more PR friendly, including one in particular that happens in Jacksonville every hear that is a benefit for Autism research. So I don't think I have a bad attitude towards bikers in general, I have known at least a handful of passionate bikers in my time and they have all been good people. There's just something about Daytona....

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

"Family friendly" does not jive with anything I've heard about Sturgis. Just doing a little Google-fu on Sturgis bike week fatalities seems to show a high of eleven fatalities and a low in 1991 where there were no fatalities- with a note that 'Most of the attendees in 1991 were tourists who came to see the bikers.'
http://www.sturgis.com/2kstats.html has some interesting stats, including the final tally of police calls and violations from last year's event.