FHP caught Brevard County’s Deputy of the Year Michael Fultz riding his motorcycle 111 mph but did not arrest him under Florida’s ‘Super Speeder’ law, News 6 has learned.
Hot take: every motorcyclist who is driving fast in a responsible way should be shown this leniency, not just pigs, as motorcycles are not cars and the risk is born by the rider instead of the public.
The public pays for the cost of their injuries, either directly through a state healthcare system or in the form of increased premiums. An insurance company has no way to differentiate reckless motorcyclists who are lucky from responsible motorcyclists.
A crash on a road will close one or more lanes while emergency services attend the site of the crash, causing congestion. While the overall inconvenience per motorist is small, it happens to many hundreds to thousands of motorists and thus collectively wastes hundreds of hours of people’s time.
Normalising reckless behaviour increases its social acceptability, and I think that as soon as it becomes widely known that you won’t go to jail for operating a motorcycle at double the speed limit, the first people to try this will be teenagers
The public pays for the cost of their injuries, either directly through a state healthcare system or in the form of increased premiums. An insurance company has no way to differentiate reckless motorcyclists who are lucky from responsible motorcyclists.
The cost of the injuries is far less than the same behavior in a car.
A crash on a road will close one or more lanes while emergency services attend the site of the crash, causing congestion
I have only seen this happen once, when a guy did suicide by bike by driving directly into the back of a dump truck doing like 100 on a bridge at 4 AM about a year ago. The bike was ripped in half and the body was so messed up nobody wanted to touch it.
Every other time, someone just walks/drags the bike and rider to the side of the road and helps them get recollected.
Normalising reckless behaviour increases its social acceptability, and I think that as soon as it becomes widely known that you won’t go to jail for operating a motorcycle at double the speed limit, the first people to try this will be teenagers
So by treating the far more dangerous car behavior the same way, are we encouraging people to behave dangerously in cars?
But my point isn’t that reckless behavior should be legalized, it’s that cases where it’s much more dangerous to society should be punished accordingly.
I ride my motorcycle everyday and ride strictly to the letter of traffic law. The safest way to ride is to be predictable. With that said, I am not wholly in disagreement with you, in that obviously risk levels for others are less than a rider in any circumstance on the road, even ones where it is the motorcyclist travelling with excess speed. That does not mean that consequences for an accident due to the unpredictablity of someone speeding are not shared with society. The trauma of witnessing a lethal accident and traffic delays due to cleanup have different severities but each can have lasting impacts on people. Riding and travelling on roadways in general already are filled with hazards and risks. Anecdotally, it seems as technology in cars meant to keep people safer makes gains in the industry, what it actually accomplishes is that it allows people to be less involved in driving, or even just complacent to not pay as much attention. This is not the rider’s fault, but adding the element of excess speed is a recipe for disaster. Ride and drive predictably. I rarely see accidents that are ambiguous. An all too common thread between accidents is excess speed.
An all too common thread between accidents is excess speed.
The influence of road conditions and traffic on what is and isn’t a safe speed is way greater on a bike than a car, so even in optimal conditions, where the speed limit was determined for motorcycles, it would have to be understood as a guide of “This is what an average bike could ride with minimal traffic and sunny road conditions, if there’s traffic or poor conditions, you should go slower”.
consequences for an accident due to the unpredictablity of someone speeding are not shared with society.
True, there aren’t zero consequences born by society, but it is far, far less than if you were speeding in a 2 ton steel box designed to protect you at the expense of anyone else, and that should be reflected in the consequences. Same reason I think it’s insane that a bicycle DUI in Japan can get you the same consequences as a car DUI, though in practice, cops understand the law is insane and only apply it to foreigners.
Hot take: every motorcyclist who is driving fast in a responsible way should be shown this leniency, not just pigs, as motorcycles are not cars and the risk is born by the rider instead of the public.
The risk is bourne by the public in three ways:
The cost of the injuries is far less than the same behavior in a car.
I have only seen this happen once, when a guy did suicide by bike by driving directly into the back of a dump truck doing like 100 on a bridge at 4 AM about a year ago. The bike was ripped in half and the body was so messed up nobody wanted to touch it.
Every other time, someone just walks/drags the bike and rider to the side of the road and helps them get recollected.
So by treating the far more dangerous car behavior the same way, are we encouraging people to behave dangerously in cars?
But my point isn’t that reckless behavior should be legalized, it’s that cases where it’s much more dangerous to society should be punished accordingly.
I ride my motorcycle everyday and ride strictly to the letter of traffic law. The safest way to ride is to be predictable. With that said, I am not wholly in disagreement with you, in that obviously risk levels for others are less than a rider in any circumstance on the road, even ones where it is the motorcyclist travelling with excess speed. That does not mean that consequences for an accident due to the unpredictablity of someone speeding are not shared with society. The trauma of witnessing a lethal accident and traffic delays due to cleanup have different severities but each can have lasting impacts on people. Riding and travelling on roadways in general already are filled with hazards and risks. Anecdotally, it seems as technology in cars meant to keep people safer makes gains in the industry, what it actually accomplishes is that it allows people to be less involved in driving, or even just complacent to not pay as much attention. This is not the rider’s fault, but adding the element of excess speed is a recipe for disaster. Ride and drive predictably. I rarely see accidents that are ambiguous. An all too common thread between accidents is excess speed.
The influence of road conditions and traffic on what is and isn’t a safe speed is way greater on a bike than a car, so even in optimal conditions, where the speed limit was determined for motorcycles, it would have to be understood as a guide of “This is what an average bike could ride with minimal traffic and sunny road conditions, if there’s traffic or poor conditions, you should go slower”.
True, there aren’t zero consequences born by society, but it is far, far less than if you were speeding in a 2 ton steel box designed to protect you at the expense of anyone else, and that should be reflected in the consequences. Same reason I think it’s insane that a bicycle DUI in Japan can get you the same consequences as a car DUI, though in practice, cops understand the law is insane and only apply it to foreigners.