SETH PUTNAM
Robert Renfroe barely saw it coming. In 2005, He was riding his 1999 Honda motorcycle west on Highway 50 when a young woman turned across his lane in her car. He plowed straight into her vehicle.
“It sent me over the handlebars and into her windshield,” Renfroe remembered. “You don’t have time to even react. It’s like looking up and seeing a train coming at you; you just grit your teeth and bear it.”
Luckily, Renfroe escaped with a couple of bulged and torn discs in his back and, most importantly, his life.
Last week, John Hall of Columbus wasn’t as fortunate. He was killed when Julian Lopez, allegedly driving under the influence, made a left turn from Highway 45 onto 31st Avenue into Hall’s direct path. Hall hit Lopez’s 2004 Dodge Stratus and died shortly afterward from the extreme head and chest trauma he sustained.
Lopez, who is being charged with vehicular manslaughter, is still in custody. His bond is set at $1 million, said Terrie Songer, the public information officer at the Columbus Police Department.
The recent fatality has raised important questions about motorcycle safety and what steps can be taken to reduce accidents. T.F.C. Brian Mobley, the public affairs officer with Troop G of the Mississippi Highway Patrol in Starkville, said an increasing number of people have been turning to motorcycles. Statistics are only available up to 2008, but from 1998 to that year, motorcycle-related fatalities increased from 2,294 to 5,290. Mobley thinks more people are riding to save some extra money in tough economic times.
Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.
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