Do Cops Chase Motorcycles

California Highway Patrol agents arrest a motorcyclist who led officers on a chase in Los Angeles on June 3, 2018.

Bikers tend to be iconoclastic and rebellious, traveling alone in packs and keeping to their own kind. Adventure riders mix with adventure riders, sport riders with sport riders, and Harley owners with other Harley owners.

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But we are united in one thing: whatever the bike, whatever the brand, we always signal to warn each other about the police. Driving down Angeles Crest Highway, Mulholland Drive or other favorite biker spots, if we see LAPD or California Highway Patrol officers cruising by, we alert oncoming passengers by raising a hand above our heads and tap our helmets.

More than 5,100 motorcyclists died on US roads in 2017, the most recent year for which full figures are available, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Motorcycle fatalities now account for 14% of all motor vehicle fatalities, a percentage that has doubled since 1997, and motorcyclists are 28 times more likely to die while riding than drivers or passengers in car, the IIHS numbers show. . Many of these deaths occurred in California. According to the Governors Highway Safety Assn., we have the most registered motorcycles of any state in the country, and every year, we lead the nation in motorcycle fatalities.

About 40% of these deaths occurred in a car crash, when the passengers hit something that didn’t stop – a tree, a guard rail, a parked car or the sidewalk – and more a third of all motorcycle fatalities involve overuse.

I’ve been riding California roads for over 45 years and I understand why people go fast. Riding a motorcycle is like flying, and higher speeds add to that feeling. You feel the taste of being free from gravity. Walking briskly also increases the excitement level and gives you a way to test your skills.

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Most of the best selling bikes today are very fast and can run at very high speeds. Pilots often run out of talent before they run out of power. In a very common scenario in Angeles Crest, a driver is going too fast to complete a turn, runs too far and crashes into something – a barricade if he’s lucky, or a parked car, a tree or stone if not. there is.

Those who rip Cobras in Malibu or race each other in the Crest see these accidents all the time. Last year alone, I witnessed three accidents. One of the victims would have been killed if we had not witnessed the accident at that moment, a few seconds after it happened, and called for help.

Many of my riding partners have had serious accidents. Despite this, no one I know talks about slowing down for their own safety. The only reason motorcyclists slow down, in my experience, is because they fear getting a speeding ticket.

The CHP responds to several serious accidents each week on these roads. Injuries and deaths seem to do nothing to reduce the number of passengers or the speed at which they travel.

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A speeding ticket yes. I know many motorcyclists who ride slower than they would like because they are sold. They paid their fines, saw their insurance bills go up, and went to traffic school to cancel a ticket so many times they couldn’t do it anymore.

It can be expensive. When a policeman books a motorcyclist for speeding, he may also note that the motorcyclist has an expired license or does not have a motorcycle endorsement or insurance, or write the motorcycle down because of expired tags, noise pipes, turn signals or custom license plate holders. or any other of dozens of minor violations – all of which cost money to fix. Years ago I wrote about an old Triumph and came up with a pamphlet-sized series of quotes.

Those who don’t get caught slow down when warned. As soon as we saw the helmet touch, we cut the throttle and watched Johnny Law in the next corner. Once we pass it, we speed up again and start carrying mail again.

I played along and did my part to help other drivers avoid running tickets. But lately I’ve started to wonder if I’m helping anyone. Maybe age and a few accidents of my own – all off-road, so far, and none of them serious – have slowed me down. Maybe this is the post-traumatic stress disorder caused by seeing the riders broken down on the side of the road.

Motorcycle Cop Tapping His Helmet To Warn Me Of Police. So Awesome.

But lately I’ve been thinking that by tapping my helmet I’m alerting them to slow down one minute and then speed up. In fact, I let them continue to speed with the feeling that they were avoiding the consequences – even though their excessive speed could have resulted in the worst outcome of all.

As I see it now, I have two clear options: slam my helmet on every approaching motorcyclist, and wait for them to slow down and stay slow until they discover there are no police ahead. Or don’t hit my helmet, and I hope some of them are named.

I expect a ton of hate mail from friends who will read this and accuse me of siding with the police against the motorcycling community. fair. But I’d rather those drivers get a speeding ticket or two and stay alive.

Charles Fleming writes about cars and motorcycles for The Times and is the author of the city walking guides “Secret Stairs” and “Secret Walks”.

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Charles Fleming writes about cars and motorcycles for the business section of the Los Angeles Times. He also writes the LA Walks urban walk column. A former writer for Newsweek, Variety, and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, he is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller “High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess,” the New York Times bestseller “My Lobotomy” and “Secret Stairs, A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles” and its sequel, “Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles”. understandable. Although Harley-Davidson has always leaned on stereotypes and many are drawn to a bad image to the bone, I don’t think it’s wrong for anyone driving to worry about that image. Also fueling the fire are the many social media accounts out there where the video posted by them or other riders who chase the police.

For some, riding a motorcycle is the ultimate expression of freedom. Understandably, traveling on the road on two wheels is more exciting and makes you feel more alive than rolling on four wheels with a cage around you. Perhaps this is partly what appeals to those who think that owning a motorcycle allows them to obey certain laws. I don’t really have a definitive answer to that, but that feeling of not having to answer to anyone just because you’re riding a bike helps fuel some riders’ anger, which sparks a positive feedback loop in the relationship. competition.

One of the reasons motorcyclists believe they can outrun the police is the fact that you can go where cars can’t. Not only can you split lanes and slide between cages, but you can easily climb sidewalks, narrow alleys, parks and get to all kinds of places where it’s impossible to get a car, even something as small as a Fiat 500 or a Smart. Two of you.

Since the police can never pass a motorcycle or use a Stop Stick, some feel this is the best way to evade the police. That may be true, but that doesn’t mean that during a chase a driver won’t hit you by accident, something you can see in the videos I’ve attached.

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Add to that the fact that a kid who can’t afford an exotic sports car can more easily afford a superbike that offers blazing fast acceleration. With that kind of power under you, it is easy to mistake yourself for some kind of wind god, able to remove anyone who dares to try to stop him. That combination of raw performance and a youthful sense of invincibility combine for absolutely idiotic behavior.

That’s not to say there aren’t guys riding Harleys or other cruisers running from the law. I have included a video from Arkansas in this exact situation. As in many cases of motorcyclists trying to get away from the police, these guys ride fast until they run out of skills, then they crash. The same thing happens to drivers who think their sports car or muscle car is faster than a police car. They may be correct, but at high speeds it is necessary

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