three fatalities at the dragon in 24 hours!

[Currently]

Hate to bring this up and if the admins want to kill this, it is ok with me.

Yesterday an R1 tucked the front end right below Guardrail corner and went down 80 feet. Was wearing gear but died at the site even as they were administering CPR.

Tonight, a goldwing trike rammed into a boat trailer and from what they say it is a very bad scene. The bodies are under the trailer and the boat went off the cliff.

They have closed off the entire road for at least another 4 hours if not overnight.

RIP

[Noble]

It's only a matter of time before they either close the road for good or ban bikes on it.

[AJ]

Maybe they should just ban re re's.

[tonyd]

They will make it an EZ pass only toll road will multiple electronic monitoring points along the road to check speed.

or worse.

They'll bring in heavy equipment and explosives and straighten it out, the enviro lobby is not quite as strong in the south so it's possible.

[KillBill]

RIP

[Cheese]

RIP

Wish they would outlaw trailers on that road. If they can't stay on their side of the yellow lines, they shouldn't be allowed on the road.

[Currently]

RIP

Wish they would outlaw trailers on that road. If they can't stay on their side of the yellow lines, they shouldn't be allowed on the road.

Your assumption is totally wrong ... both fatal accidents were people riding over their heads.
Accident 1 -

:: The Daily Times ::

Dragon claims life: Man falls over 80-foot cliff to death




Daryl Sullivan/The Daily Times
Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Ernest Marion measures the 95-foot distance a motorcycle dropped off a cliff after the driver lost control on the Dragon section of Calderwood Highway.







By Mark Boxley
of The Daily Times Staff


A Michigan man fell to his death Thursday evening after losing control of his motorcycle on the Dragon and sliding off an 80-foot cliff.
The identity of the driver was not released, pending notification of his family.
The call was received after the accident by emergency personnel at 6:52 p.m. The incident happened near Mile Marker 7 on Calderwood Highway (U.S. 129, also commonly known as the Dragon).
According to Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Ernest Marion, it appears that the motorcycle driver “lowsided” his bike by applying too much braking pressure on the front wheel while taking a curve — which caused the slide. The man then slid with the bike over the edge of the highway, down an 80-foot cliff and landed on a small ledge in a heavily wooded area off the side of road. His black 2005 Yamaha motorcycle continued on for another 15 feet, coming to rest 95 feet below the road.
Larry Brown, a Fort Wayne, Ind., motorcycle rider in Tennessee on vacation, was one of the first people on the scene. He was alerted to the wreck by a pair of riders who were rushing down the highway looking for someone to call 911. Cell phone coverage in the area is sporadic, so Brown told them to try a store farther up the road. In the meantime, because he knew CPR he attended to the driver while emergency personnel were on their way to the accident.
When he got to the injured driver he was still breathing and had a pulse, Brown said. Emergency personnel were apparently not able to resuscitate the driver, and the man ultimately did not survive the crash. As a fellow motorcycle rider, Brown said seeing the severely injured driver and the accident scene left him “very uneasy.”
Speed was not a factor in the accident, Marion said. “Not at all.”
According to Brown, the motorcyclist was wearing a helmet at the time of the wreck.
No other information on the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident was available Thursday.
Along with THP, Blount County Sheriff’s Office, Blount Special Operations Response Team (BSORT), Blount County Fire Department, Blount County Volunteer Rescue Squad and Rural/Metro Ambulance Service responded to the accident.
This is the 15th traffic fatality in Blount County this year.



Last modified: July 13. 2007 12:33AM

Accident 2 - :: The Daily Times ::

Two die on Dragon




Mark Boxley/The Daily Times
Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Ernest Marion takes photographs of the scene of a double fatality on the Dragon Friday.







By Mark Boxley
of The Daily Times Staff


The treacherous curves of the Dragon claimed two more lives Friday as a pair of people from Florida were killed in a wreck that closed the road for more than three hours.
It was the second fatal accident on the road in two days.
A man and a woman were riding on a three-wheeled Honda motorcycle, known as a trike, when they apparently took a curve of northbound Calderwood Highway (U.S. 129, commonly known as the Dragon) too quickly and lost control, said Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Ernest Marion.
The pair then hit a Toyota Land Cruiser with a large boat on a trailer driven by John Stanley Hitch, 53, Maryville, that was coming up the hill in the southbound lane. The accident took place between Mile Markers 2 and 3 on Calder-
wood Highway.
The impact was so severe that it nearly knocked the 5,000-pound boat completely off the trailer. The couple on the trike were trapped under the boat and trailer after the accident.
The name of the pair was not released Friday pending notification of their family members.
Another motorcycle rider, Bret Akers, 45, Lincolnton, N.C., wrecked when he hit the overturned trike. He was injured, but refused treatment, Marion said.
Speed was a factor in the accident, he said.
Agee Lequire, Philadelphia, was driving a truck with a horse trailer just seconds behind the trike on northbound Calderwood Highway. The accident had happened moments before when he pulled up and Hitch flagged him down.
Lequire said he tried to assist the two riders of the Honda trike, but when he got to them under the trailer and boat, it was too late.
“(The wreck) was too much,” he said. “There’s just nothing you can do to help someone in that kind of condition.”
Cell phone coverage in the area is spotty at best, and Lequire could not get a signal to call 911. Of the other motorists at the scene of the accident, someone was finally to get through and contacted emergency personnel at 5:59 p.m.
Once on the scene, it took emergency personnel and tow truck workers more than an hour to move the boat and other debris enough to remove the bodies of the victims from the scene.
Along with THP, Blount County Sheriff’s Office, Blount County Volunteer Rescue Squad, Rural/Metro Ambulance Service and an ambulance from Graham County, N.C., responded to the accident.
Thursday victim ID’d
Friday’s accident followed by one day the fatal accident that involved a motorcycle rider from Michigan losing control of his bike on a curve on the Dragon and sliding to his death over an 80-foot cliff.
The man killed in the motorcycle wreck at 6:52 p.m. Thursday on Calderwood Highway was identified by authorities Friday as Kevin James Hoyt, 40, Highland, Mich.
According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol accident report, Hoyt was southbound on the highway when he lost control in a curve and slid down an embankment.
He “low sided” his bike by applying too much braking pressure on the front wheel while taking the curve, according to Trooper Marion, who also responded to that wreck.
Hoyt then slid with the bike over the edge of the highway, down an 80-foot cliff and landed on a small ledge in a heavily wooded area off the side of the road.
His black 2005 Yamaha motorcycle continued on for another 15 feet before coming to rest 95 feet below the road.
The accident happened about seven miles from the North Carolina line. The 11-mile-long Dragon runs from Tab Cat Creek to Deal’s Gap in North Carolina.
Friday’s accident brings the number of traffic fatalities in Blount County for 2007 to 17. By this time in 2006 Blount County had only had nine traffic fatalities.



Last modified: July 14. 2007 1:23AM

The Honda Trike crossed the double yellow on 2 wheels going way to fast for the curve and slammed right in front of the trailer pushing the boat into the woods. They ended up underneath the trailer.

[Cheese]

Thanks for the correction and you have my apologies for jumping to an unrelated conclusion.

[Currently]

Apology accepted.

Every time I ride over there, I am more scared of bikes riding over their abilities than semi's or sport cars.

The testosterone level is incredible ... they can't hold a line and the worse they are, the more in denial they are. That is what scares me the most ... that denial that they cannot control their bikes!

[clive]

I like to ride the other roads in the area, The dragon is just to crazy and full of wankers. there is another road to the East that has more corners and no traffic.

[Ken600RR]

This is the reason im scared to go.

YouTube - Truck on Deals Gap

YouTube - 18-Wheelers on the Dragon - Deal's Gap, NC

[KillBill]

This is the reason im scared to go.

YouTube - Truck on Deals Gap

YouTube - 18-Wheelers on the Dragon - Deal's Gap, NC

OMG

How the hell are 18 wheelers allowed on that road??

Clearly their turning/wheelbase length cannot handle the curves.

GEESH!

[erik87]

RIP

Wish they would outlaw trailers on that road. If they can't stay on their side of the yellow lines, they shouldn't be allowed on the road.

i agree sorta

i agree that they should outlaw any vehicle that cannot stay within the yellow line by their size

but on the other hand they need to make sure(practically impossible to do) every rider/driver of properly sized vehicles can and will handle their vehicles to stay on their side of the road and on the road

so yes, banning large vehicles will cut down on some of the fatalaties, but not all of them

IMO, everyone has a right to go down that road, and if a trucker decides he/she needs to go down that road, i think it should at least be mandatory to have an escort vehicle so as to warn vehicles coming the other way...

my .02

[Kham]

the people that ride over their head only kill themselves. why would there be a need to ban bike?

[erik87]

the people that ride over their head only kill themselves. why would there be a need to ban bike?

because people who ride over their head dont just kill themselves

EDIT: heres the link i was trying to post

Video of crash - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[01YZF6]

the first person you mentioned I knew personally, his name was Kevin......

he was an avid track day rider, and according to the state troopers he was not speeding, or riding wrecklessly.

He grabbed a little too much front brake and lowsided.

[JeffL]

Semi trucks are no problem........we had a 65x16' house boat roll through the dragon while we were down there.

[Spyda]

I've been over there 4 times this year (I'm currently living in NC) and the last time was my last EVER. There are WAY too many people that ride beyond their ability there and make it incredibly dangerous for everyone else. The whole thing is basically very tight blind switchbacks, and 75% of the time I'm either stuck behind a line of cars or an RV or group of cruisers riding slow as hell, or trying to avoid getting creamed by fargin bastages crossing into my lane from the other direction.

There's a place called Shady Valley, TN that's a hell of a lot safer and offers just as many twisties. Almost exclusively motorcycles and there are never any cops up there. My post count is too low for me to post a link, but if you go to youtube and type "cfreson" into the search box you'll see a couple vids I posted riding through there. I'm going to miss that place...

[JonVT]

I was riding at the Dragon all last week and it is definitely getting to popular for its own good. Used to be the road was pretty deserted midweek, but it was packed at all times except for weekday evenings this year. A guy lowsided in the corner where the Yamaha rider died the night before as well, but he didn't go off the cliff, only his bike did. Seeing the accidents was pretty chilling, and I'll probably ride more conservatively down there from here on out. Jon

[Kham]

he was an avid track day rider, and according to the state troopers he was not speeding, or riding wrecklessly.

He grabbed a little too much front brake and lowsided.

i don't understand. why would he grab too much brake? must be the tires.

[OreoGaborio]

i don't understand. why would he grab too much brake? must be the tires.

yeah, definintely the tires

Why would he grab too much brake? I dunno... maybe the same reason you ask questions like "Why would he grab too much brake?".

[KB]

Sorry to hear people dying on the dragon but I really have no sympathy for any of them.

I've been, I respect the dragon, I come home alive. Simple.

KB

[Josephd14]

maybe we should go ride here..

[clive]

That place can be hot and very tiring. On the track it is the same corner over and over again the Dragan is 318 turns and LOTS of distractions.

My sympathy to the family

[Kham]

yeah, definintely the tires

Why would he grab too much brake? I dunno... maybe the same reason you ask questions like "Why would he grab too much brake?".

could it be he's speeding? so ride over his head? or he didn't want to hit a dog?

what else could it be smartass if everything was within his limit?