Careless ORV Operator on Highway Critically Injures Motorcyclist

[XLFD]

Another accident where a motorcyclist is critically injured because someone pulled out in front of them.  The big twist in this case is that the person that pulled out in front of him was on an ORV crossing the highway where he shouldn't have.  The on-scene account is related in the Mason County Press:

WALHALLA (Branch Township) — Two people were injured following an ATV/motorcycle crash at the intersection of US 10 and Gibson Road Wednesday, Sept. 23. Emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene at 12:20 p.m. According to Michigan State Police troopers on scene, the crash occurred when a Honda side-by-side UTV driven by a 72-year-old Custer man apparently drove into the path of a motorcycle driven by a 56-year-old Lamont (Ottawa County) man. The motorcycle then struck the side of the UTV.

Both drivers were transported by ambulance to Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital, both with possible head injuries. The motorcyclist, who was wearing a helmet, was then transported by Aeromed helicopter to a Grand Rapids trauma center. The driver of the UTV was transported to a Muskegon hospital, according to MSP.

The above is a map showing where the UTV was crossing the highway (in red), the motorcyclist's path (in orange) according to the information dispatched.  The damage to the UTV appears to be consistent with being struck on the driver's side which would happen if the bike was eastbound and the UTV crossing the highway from the end of Gibson Road.  

This accident is instructive in looking at UTV/ATV/ORV operations and how this could have been avoided if the UTV operator had made different choices.  The Michigan Off-Road Handbook describes how ORVs should be operated in the state and the laws pertaining to them.  A UTV and ATV are categories of ORVs so the following apply when crossing a state highway:

Gibson Road terminates at the US 10 highway, crossing at that point would necessitate riding on the shoulder of US 10, which would be against the law (see section 7) as this is a state highway and the nearest road is not a continuation of Gibson Road.  There is a fence lining the shoulder on the other side preventing off-road access.

So not only was crossing the Gibson location going to lead to illegal use of the UTV, it was also a bad place to cross (first highlight) because the visibility was poor.  The highway's curve affected both riders since the UTV rider (presuming that he stopped) may have had difficulty on the pavement with his ORV; so even had he began when the biker was just out of sight and had some issue (or was just proceeding slowly as advised), neither could correct the problem in time and effectively the UTV driver failed to yield to the oncoming traffic of the highway.

This is another one of those preventable type of accidents that could have been avoided had the UTV driver made different choices, but he will likely not even be cited for directly causing this accident.  One other problem should also be noticed, that the police and the MCP mention that the motorcyclist was wearing a helmet and received a head injury, but the UTV driver also received a critical head injury.  

Due to the nature of the accident, one might assume that he was not in a harness/seatbelt assembly equipped with a Honda Pioneer UTV, for his head would have remained stabilized and uninjured, and that he was not wearing a helmet, for the force of impact would likely have made his head hit the driver's side window and perhaps the passenger's seat.  Minor concussions and whiplash maybe, but not head injuries requiring outside hospital care.  

As typical of a motorcycle accident with another vehicle involved and at fault, the police and the media choose not to concentrate on who is at fault and why their actions or lack of actions critically injured or killed another person.  They concentrate more on whether the biker wore a helmet, and wording the narrative so as to say the motorcyclist struck the vehicle, rather than the biker's right-of-way (and often their life) was taken illegally from them.