It happened Sunday almost at the same time as it did Saturday, and in virtually the same fashion. Only the location was different: A car was making a turn from a main highway onto a side road, its driver mis-judged or did not see the approach of an oncoming motorcyclist. The motorcyclist–Alan Taylor, 53, of Newport Beach, Calif.–slammed into the car, and was evacuated by air to Halifax hospital. He is expected to survive.
Sunday’s wreck took place at about 12:45 p.m. at the intersection of South A1A and Club House Drive, by the Ocean View condominiums. Robert Minahan, an 80-year-old driver at the wheel of a Taurus-like, gray Ford 500, was driving north on A1A, with 49-year-old Joanne Taratino of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., as his passenger. He was to make a turn, left, onto Club House Drive.
“I was turning in here,” Minahan said, not long after the wreck, as he stood at a corner of the intersection, waiting for the Florida Highway Patrol to arrive, “he looked like he was far enough down there, then I saw him sliding into me.”
Neither Minahan nor Taratino were injured.
Taylor suffered multiple fractures to the legs, and also had facial injuries. He was flown to Halifax by Flagler County Fire Flight, which had landed on A1A. The highway was closed shortly after the wreck from the Flagler Beach water tower down to Club House Drive. Fire Flight took off just after 1 p.m. A1A was set to reopen just after 1:30 p.m.
“At this point, no signs of impairment and nothing criminal,” the Florida Highway Patrol investigator said, remarking on the similarities with Saturday’s wreck.
On Saturday, an almost identical wreck took place on Old Dixie Highway South, also requiring the biker’s evacuation to Halifax by Fire Flight.
The wreck on A1A left the bike near the Taurus in the center of the highway as an FHP investigator and, earlier, the Flagler Beach Fire Department and Flagler County Fire Rescue worked the scene. The Flagler Beach Fire Police and the Flagler Beach Police Department provided traffic control.
Taylor was not wearing a helmet, according to preliminary findings at the scene. Minahan is facing a charge of violation of right of way and improper left turn, and will have a mandatory court appearance because of the involvement of injuries in the crash.
Ben Dover says
Its too bad , but we know its going to happen , its inevitable ,you put that many bikers in one area and you`ve got the perfect recipe for disaster, old people can barely see another car coming let alone a bike , I hope this guy and yesterdays make full recoveries , still say this need to make the hotel store and bar owners richer twice a year , pales to the lives lost and destroyed , but greed is a strong driving force , if the bikers didn t spend any money and no one profited from these gatherings they would be banned , but as long as spmeones making money its acceptable , sick world we live in
just me says
Extreme!!!! Ben
Yellowstone says
In PC, at lunch time, between CVS and McDs, on Kings Road, a bike roared out of CVS’s lot heading south. Little or no regard as he continued beside me, wrong lane, down the north bound lane!
It was ‘this close’ to a front page news story and another fatality.
Bikers and 4-wheelers alike can be irresponsible. When you get that combination tragedy is in the making. Malfunction junction just down the road from where you live.
It takes two offense drivers to cause an accident.
Everybody: Drive defensively – like your life depends upon it.
John says
Ben,some of your letter makes sense,other parts however are way off base.Many,many more people and business’ make money from these events.You touched on 2 or 3 but you left out the ten’s or hundreds of others that benefit from said.In fact,if you’re a property owner in Volusia or Flagler county even you make money in the form of taxes collected from sales including gas in the area.
Your welcome from the bikers.
Ron says
For the second time in as many days, we have an incident where a car turns left directly into the path of an oncoming motorcycle because they “didn’t see them”.
I get tired of saying this, but I’ll continue to do so anyway:
> This is the NUMBER ONE cause of car vs. motorcycle accidents.
> Please, please, PLEASE watch out for motorcycles!!!!
Carol says
Dont worry Ben, in this economy those so called “Big” businesses wont be open much longer. They count on the big events such as Biketober fest and Bike week to carry them over for the rest of the year. I live in Korona and have to put up with the crowed streets and loud noise, but i dont mind , i can put up with it for a week, if it helps the local businesses . As far as people getting hurt in Auto-bike accidents, it is too bad, but i think 2 accidents out of the thousands of bikers that come to the area isnt bad, altho we wish it would be zero. It isnt a sick world, it is just people still trying to keep their heads above water.
TMILEY says
Why blame bikers and those who draw them in? Why not blame drivers and old people wo if they “can barely see another car coming let alone a bike”???? We all need to look out for each other, if you can’t see, then don’t drive.
Outsider says
It’s not fair to blame all bikers or all drivers; I’ve seen wrecks like these, and I’ve seen some bikers riding like morons. I would love to ride a motorcycle again. It was a couple of decades ago that I was riding and came oh so close to being the victim in a wreck just like the one described above. The driver stopped at the last moment. For the sake of my wife and children, I just don’t do it.
Geezer says
Every Bike Week comes with fatalities, along with DUI’s being ignored by the police.
So maybe there’s some benefit (as other posters cite), but one life lost, is one-too-many.
Why the DUI remark? Look at the roadhouses teeming with bikers. Arrival to and from these bars, on motorcycles using our roads. The bikers leave the bars with alcohol in their systems, most over the legal limit. Imagine deputies stationed outside the bars (roadhouses)? What would happen? Lot’s of arrests, and soon, no more Bike Week. So be it.
It’s an exercise in greed and hypocrisy.
For the feeble-to-none monetary benefit that trickles in to the rest of us, it isn’t worth it.
Again, one life lost, is one-too-many.
And isn’t drinking and driving illegal for all?
And please, LOOK OUT FOR CARS.