Houston motorcycle accident lawyers bring your attention to a tragic motorcycle accident over the weekend in Montgomery County. Sunday afternoon, the rider of a Harley Davidson who was reportedly driving quite safely and observing all traffic laws and rules of the road, suddenly experienced “drift” and crashed.
The Houston man had been coming out of a curve on FM 149 close to Majestic Oaks near FM 1488. A witness said that the rider had been going straight coming out of the curve but then began to drift to the right, which caused him to hit a driveway, become airborne, and crash and roll. Rescue workers tried to revive the man, but he died at the scene. The rider was reportedly wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
Our Houston motorcycle accident lawyers realize that many otherwise careful drivers can unexpectedly lose control of their vehicles on curves. This might result from a speed greater than the vehicle can bear on the curve. Bikes particularly can experience a loss of control on curves if they hit a bit of loose gravel, wet road conditions, small road obstacles, or even slight irregularities in the pavement.
Often when drivers try to compensate for a deviation from their intended course, they might experience an oversteering or an understeering event. Our Houston motorcycle accident lawyers point out that this can happen when a wheel not controlled by power steering begins to rotate more slowly than other wheels, perhaps because of braking. The wheel will continue on a course other than the one indicated by the steering position and the vehicle might begin to drift or spin.
Some of the powerful Harley Davidson bikes are noted for a phenomenon bikers have come to call “the Harley death wobble.” It’s a vibration that can take suddenly hold of the bike at speeds in excess of 70 mph. The vibration decreases rider control over the vehicle and can lead to fatal crash.
It may be some time before accident investigators pinpoint the precise cause(s) of the Houston man’s Harley Davidson crash. But the fact that the bike began to drift and then crashed as the Harley came out of a curve gives some direction to their inquiries in the matter.
A witness that had been on the road behind the Harley for some time pointed out that the bike’s rider drover carefully, did not exceed the speed limit, and obeyed traffic laws. So the cause of the crash might be found (among other possible causes) in the inherent driving qualities of the particular Harley bike, a slight over-correction or under-correction coming out of that curve in the road, or even some loose gravel or other slight obstructions in the pavement.
Learn more about the infamous Harley death wobble in our Houston motorcycle accident lawyers’ article at this link.