Lessons from the Death of Trooper Chad Wolf

[XLFD]

A sad bit of news that happened between Detroit and Flint, during a pre-dawn ride, a motorcyclist was apparently sideswiped by a trailer at the back of a vehicle when that vehicle turned onto an off-ramp.  The motorcycle rider got trapped underneath the trailer, and was dragged over four miles, where the aged driver stopped and noticed.  The biker died. 

Complicating the mix was that the motorcyclist was a Michigan State Police (MSP) Trooper named Chad Wolf, and the only apparent witness to the initial contact was the driver who allegedly had no idea he had hit or been hit by anyone.  Here are some of the details of the story courtesy of the Detroit Free Press:

"A Michigan State Police trooper and married father of four died early Friday after he was knocked off his motorcycle (pictured below) in Oakland County and dragged for several miles.

More than 11 hours after the crash, State Police announced that the 38-year-old trooper, Chad Wolf, had died of his injuries. He had previously been hospitalized in critical condition.  Wolf was on patrol when a 72-year-old motorist from Waterford driving a car hauling a trailer hit his department-issued motorcycle while changing lanes at about 6:30 a.m.

The department said 38-year-old trooper Chad Wolf was on his motorcycle when he was hit on north Dixie Highway by a car towing a trailer that was changing lanes to get on the ramp to northbound I-75.

Wolf was dragged by the trailer until the driver eventually stopped after pulling into a rest area north of Springfield Township [the route is shown in red above]. He is cooperating with investigators. No charges were immediately filed.

Wolf joined the state police in 2008 and has served posts in the Jackson, Flint and Detroit areas.  Through most of the day, the northbound lanes of the busy freeway were shut down as investigators reconstructed the collision and gathered evidence. The northbound lanes reopened about 5 p.m." (end article)

As you can see from the accident scene above, where the collision occurred, the Dixie Highway has three lanes for traffic, and the exit is to the right of the road and gradually turns as it goes to I-75.  The motorcycle was left behind at this point, with minimal damage to the bike, as seen in the picture above.  Trooper Wolf apparently wound up snagged onto the trailer and wasn't able to get free.  The MSP acting as the investigating authority has not released much on details of how this may have happened. 

We are to believe that Wolf was travelling in the right lane while the driver was in one of the left lanes and swerved over cutting him off.  This intimates that Wolf was in preparation to pass the vehicle on the right with his motorcycle in the darkness, a very dangerous maneuver, in fact according to the secretary of state's driving guidelines  (https://www.michigan.gov/documents/wedmk_16312_7.pdf)

This advice is primarily for vehicle operators, but is especially critical when operating a hard-to-see motorcycle in dark conditions.  In fact, one of Trooper Wolf's fellow officers out of the Jackson MSP post, Trooper Derrick White, was providing traffic laws and advice out of the MSP Jackson post to the Jackson Citizen Patriot offered his perspective in 2011, which was never controverted by any other officer or in the comments:

"The law specifically states that a driver must use the far right lane as the main lane of travel, and the left lane should only be used to pass... (Driving in the left lane on the freeway, when not passing another vehicle) creates a dilemma for drivers who want to pass, as it is technically illegal to pass on the right. MCL 257.634(1)(a) states, “The driver of a vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall pass at a safe distance to the left of that vehicle, and when safely clear of the overtaken vehicle shall take up a position as near the right-hand edge of the main traveled portion of the highway as is practicable.”"

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2011/05/trooper_talk_it...

Furthermore, the definitive Michigan Motorcycle Operator's Manual p. 23 does not cover how to pass on the right of a vehicle.  MCL 257.636(1)(b) gives the proper way to pass a vehicle that is traveling slow in the leftmost lane:  "the driver of an overtaken vehicle shall give way to the right in favor of the overtaking vehicle on audible signal".  This unfortunate situation, as explained, should not have happened if Trooper Wolf was following the law-- and if he was following the Michigan Motorcycle Operator's Manual guidelines for safe riding, which states that you should be following a vehicle on a motorcycle with at least a three second cushion when it's dark.

Even if the vehicle driver swerved at the last minute to make the exit, Trooper Wolf would have had the time to swerve and go to either shoulder of the road if he had followed this commonsense bit of motorcycle safety.  The scenario we are told that happened, can only make a discerning individual wonder why the motorcyclist was to the right of the vehicle, and why he was coming up too close to that vehicle. 

Police officer or not, this accident seems totally avoidable if the motorcyclist was riding smart.  After the MSP, the governor and everyone else mourns the loss of someone who appears to be a good person and a good trooper, they need to look at the training of the MSP Motorcycle Troopers and the policy that puts these motorcycles out during darkness which seems to work against common sense notions of safety.  Policing on motorcycles is dangerous enough in itself when it's daylight.  The strength of police motorcycle units is realized when they are visible to the public

And one last problem with this scenario as it has played out.  The vehicle and trailer involved is pictured below at the rest stop.

Another angle shows the damage to the trailer happened on the driver's side, as seen below, quite extensive damage to the wheel(s), you can also see the towing arm is rather long and looks as if it may swing out quite a bit if the vehicle turns.

For Trooper Wolf to get caught underneath the driver's side wheel after it impacted his motorcycle, one would think the motorcycle would have to be to the left of the trailer.  Perhaps Trooper Wolf was passing on the legal side, the left-side, and was hit by the trailer when the driver did a sudden abrupt right turn near the exit.  The trailer may have shot over a little into the adjacent lane and upset Trooper Wolf off his bike. 

Even if this was the case, it still would not have been safe to pass on the right with as little clearance that would have put him in the way of the trailer.  The other possibility, where the vehicle quickly braked, and Trooper Wolf laid down his bike and wound up beneath the trailer, also indicates an error in safe judgment, because he would have been following too closely.

While we memorialize Chad Wolf and dedicate our prayers and resources to his family and friends, let us hope that the MSP can look at adjusting their training and their protocols for police motorcycle operations by reviewing the bad choices that seem to have been made here.

[XLFD]

In the article Waterford man charged in trooper’s dragging death bound over to Oak... it goes over the probable cause hearing for the driver, and the defense attorney's frustration is my own:

(MSP Investigator) Lindstrom said that through crash reconstruction technology, he and other officers during the investigation were able to piece together that the left side of Wolf’s motorcycle had hit the right side of the trailer. After that contact, Wolf was thrown to the front left side of the deck of the trailer, where his shoulder got tangled with a bolt, which resulted in Wolf falling from the trailer and being dragged for 3.8 miles.

(Defense Attorney) Rockind, during cross-examination, questioned Sgt. Lindstrom’s investigation methods, contending that there were no facts to say that Warren technically caused the accident, or to say how fast either driver was going. Lindstrom agreed with both assertions.

Rockind said investigators also failed to diagram all positions both vehicles could have been in during the area of impact on the exit ramp from Dixie Highway onto northbound I-75.

In closings, Rockind said there initially was a “scuttlebutt” about how the accident took place.

“But the physical facts don’t support that Mr. Warren cut Trooper Wolf off,” said Rockind. “How can one conclude that a person operating a vehicle in front of another is the cause of an accident?”

The facts support that Trooper Chad Wolf was driving his motorcycle unsafely; the justice system would have not even considered this a crime were the roles reversed.