St. Augustine sees third motorcycle fatality this year
June 09, 2015On behalf of Terence Gross of Gross & Schuster, P.A. posted in Motorcycle Accidents on Tuesday, July 2, 2013.
Last month, a 52-year-old St. Augustine man died in an early morning crash, providing a grim reminder of the dangers of riding a motorcycle. According to investigators, the motorcyclist had been riding his bike around a curve in the road when his bike flipped over several times before coming to rest upright against a guardrail.
In the course of the accident, the biker was ejected from the bike and landed in a culvert 18 feet from the site of the wreck. Sources said he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Luckily, no other vehicles were involved in the crash. Sources didn’t clarify whether alcohol was a factor in the crash, but noted that the biker had recently left a sports bar immediately prior to the crash.
The accident is reportedly the third fatal motorcycle crash in St. Augustine this year. Back in March, a 49-year-old Connecticut man was killed after running into a box truck that had been backing into a private driveway, blocking a lane in the road. In April, a 23-year-old St. Augustine man died after driving his motorcycle directly into a Lexus. Those two accidents, according to police, involved motorcyclists who did not have the proper endorsements. It isn’t yet clear whether the most recent motorcycle fatality involved a biker without endorsements.
To be properly endorsed to operate a motorcycle in Florida, a biker must complete a Military Motorcycle Rider course or Motorcycle Safety Foundation sponsored rider course. These and other requirements are set in place to ensure not only the safety of the biker, but other motorists on the road.
Source: St. Augustine’s Record, “Motorcycle crash claims Florida Guard veteran,” Douglas Jordan, June 25, 2013.
