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May 5, 2012· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

Two motorcycle fatalities in 24 hours

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

One motorcyclist crashed head-on into an SUV on San Francisquito Road yesterday evening, the other, “travelling northbound on Osage Ridge Road [in Saugus] at a high rate of speed lost control” and slammed into a mailbox and died  just after midnight at the scene, according to Deputies.

Of the six people who died in traffic collisions in 2009 in Santa Clarita (the last year of data from the CHP), three were motorcyclists while 32 motorcyclists were injured in the SCV that year. That seems to be significantly higher than the rest of the County, where only 14% of fatal collisions involved motorcycles (80 motorcycle fatalities that year).

Just a bit of context to think about as you look at the Signal’s picture of the accident scene at San Francisquito road. You can see the female driver of the Toyota hunched over in her car, obviously distraught.

Comments (27)

  1. Jim FarleyMay 5, 2012 at 1:41 pm
    As a Smith Driving instructor, having lost people close in vehicle accidents, and witnessing many accidents over the last couple of years I have been very interested in the accident statistics. This site from the NTSHA shows statistically just how much more dangerous motorcycles are as opposed to automobiles, especially when considering fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (mvmt). http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Trends/TrendsGeneral.aspx Passenger vehicles have become increasingly and consistently safer almost every year since the 1920′s. From 1994 to 2009 passenger car fatalities per 100 million vmt went from 2.07 to 1.22. Motorcycle fatalities in 1994 were 22.84 and increased yearly until 2005 when they peaked at 44.79 per 100mvmt, almost double. From 2005 to 2009 they started a downward trend to 22.09 fatalities per 100mvmt. Even though motorcycle fatalities have shown a decrease you were still more than 18 times more likely to be a fatality on a motorcycle as opposed to a passenger car in 2009. The statistical trend between car and motorcycle fatalities makes complete sense. Cars are safer due to the advent of air bags and other engineering features. Since the advent of the high powered “rice rocket”, “road racer”, or whatever you want to call it motorcycles have acceleration and top speeds like they have never had before. Perhaps, by nature, drivers of this type of vehicle are more inclined to get everything they can out of their bikes and therefore put themselves at higher risk? An anecdotal lesson in this is that on my way home from work yesterday I witnessed an accident between two compact vehicles on Balboa Bl that occurred within one hour of the accident on San Francisquito. One car turned left in front of the other and the other car impacted it at a high rate of speed (no braking was involved before impact). The damage to both was severe. Both of the drivers got out and walked away from the vehicles. A much better outcome than the San Francisquito accident. Why are motorcycle fatalities higher in the SCV? Perhaps our canyon roads? Are there more motorcycle riders here? Do they tend to run younger and less experienced than other areas? There must be a valid reason. It is also interesting that the motorcycle fatalities nationally per 100mvmt had been on the decline from 2005 to 2009. What is causing that trend?
  2. PetzMay 5, 2012 at 3:40 pm
    We are “blessed” with nice weather and twistintg winding roads that enhance the MC experience. Rode my bike today, cautious as hell……
  3. PetzMay 6, 2012 at 6:43 pm
    One can’t help but note that Obama’s green energy policy has forced people onto motorcycles and into smaller–less safe cars. Let the blame lay where it belongs.
  4. CCMay 6, 2012 at 7:43 pm
    really Petz?
  5. Mike MMay 7, 2012 at 7:39 am
    I’m sorry, but that’s idiotic. I started riding during Bush Sr., continued during Clinton, began commuting during GW. Nobody’s energy policy influenced that but my own – I’d dramatically prefer to get 40+ mpg on the bike than 20-ish in my pickup at the time, or my SUV now.
  6. JayceMay 7, 2012 at 9:29 am
    I don’t even…
  7. spineflower2May 7, 2012 at 12:28 pm
    You are parroting an ill-conceived editorial penned by one of the well-known ‘Bamabashers, carried in many local papers recently. It was in the Ventura County Star, among others. It is idiotic to argue that a move to smaller cars is a bad thing for safety. By your logic, if we all drove tanks we’d be fine. Perhaps a more logical approach is to tax the hell out of large SUVs due to their “aggressive” contribution to loss of life and property damage. It is the DIFFERENCE in size that matters, not the absolute size. If we all drove smaller cars, there wouldn’t be this “big-car/small-car” problem, either. Why choose to blame the smaller car? Why not equally blame the larger car? Furthermore, you choose to make this an “Obama issue” as was attempted in the syndicated editorial. It’s just silly. It’s just a matter of time before we are all driving smaller electric cars. Physics and geology drive this. It is only the timing that we can control. We can wait until we are fighting ourselves for the diminishing resource of oil (as we are already fighting others for in the Middle East), or we can try for a planned, “soft landing”– and avoid some pretty ugly scenarios of class and civil warfare that result if we run out suddenly, as free markets tend to cause.
  8. CastaicClayMay 5, 2012 at 3:47 pm
    I think most high speed crashes involve sport bikes, but they have been around a long time now and stats. have decreased (occasionally) since their introduction. The canyon roads around here are too tempting. I think it’s the roads.
  9. BertaMay 5, 2012 at 4:13 pm
    Information provided by a reliable source is that the young man riding his motorcycle who died in San Francisquito Canyon was a City of Santa Clarita employee, very sad.
  10. AdamMay 5, 2012 at 4:34 pm
    Off topic a bit Your eyes deceive you. There is no female in the drivers seat. At first glance it looks that way but upon a closer look that is a female (presumably a CHiP officer) behind the car. It’s a trick of light and angle that it appears to be a female in the front seat.
  11. brookMay 7, 2012 at 11:59 am
    I had to click through to see if they really put a picture of the other driver still inside her car upset over the accident, as that would be so insentivie and out of line in my opinion. Good to know it wasn’t really the case!
  12. WalkerMay 5, 2012 at 5:46 pm
    Not that it matters much, but the Osage Ridge accident is North Valencia. It’s a small residential street, not something that would be attractive to reckless motorcyclists like San Fran and Bouquet are. Very tragic
  13. Jim FarleyMay 5, 2012 at 8:37 pm
    I agree that this is very tragic for all of the families involved. Osage Ridge is indeed a street on which you would not expect a tragic accident such as this. Was the victim someone who lived on or near the street? I was intrigued when you said it was North Valencia and not Saugus as I live in the Northbridge area. Checking it on Google Maps I found the homes on Osage are literally a stones throw from the homes in Northbridge Pointe (North Valencia). The only access to them however is via Pamplico off Seco Cyn. I think that puts the street in Saugus, but as you say that is a small matter.
  14. ThomasMay 6, 2012 at 6:56 am
    The Post Office puts Osage Ridge in the 91354 zip code which makes it Valencia. Really no big deal but since many here are territorial I guess it makes sense then. So to those who like to bag on Saugus, you will have to live with the fact it happened in Valencia aka Awesometown.
  15. WalkerMay 6, 2012 at 7:26 am
    Yeah, it’s totally North Valencia – but my point was that thinking Saugus there are some more rural (or semi-rural) roads that might be attractive for reckless riding. Osage Ridge is a little residential street of tract homes in North Valencia, which makes me think it was probably someone goofing off in their own neighborhood (like Jim said). There’s really not another reason to be in that neighborhood at all, let alone on a bike in the middle of the night. I’m also curious if the rider was wearing a helmet, since it’s been my experience that often times people who race up and down their own street don’t bother.
  16. Mike MMay 7, 2012 at 7:42 am
    Newspaper reporting of both accidents say that both riders were wearing helmets. That’s good, but at those speeds helmets won’t do much but leave your face recognizable for the open-casket service
  17. Jim FarleyMay 6, 2012 at 9:00 am
    No intent to bag on Saugus. Saugus is a great community. I was just surprised to learn a bit more about my local geography. Before checking I would have swore Osage ultimately connected through to Hillsborough Parkway. That’s all.
  18. VenturanMay 6, 2012 at 9:37 am
    The Post Office puts Osage Ridge in the 91354 zip code which makes it Valencia. The granularity of postal codes doesn’t nearly mirror the communities in Santa Clarita, nor can you expect them to.
  19. LarMccMay 6, 2012 at 10:04 am
    Back in the 80′s and 90′s, 91354 always was not ‘real’ Valencia. Everyone out here knew that. It clearly looked nothing like Valencia. Back then, there was no through roads to Copper Hill or Decoro, meaning the only access to the 91354 was via Bouquet which was clearly Saugus. The construction of the whole Northbridge area complicated this though because it looks like Valencia and was in the 91354.
  20. Timothy C Myers SRMay 6, 2012 at 11:19 am
    Since Leon W. is not responding let me stand in for him. “Valencia” includes all the areas (in and out of the City) that were originally developed by Newhall Land and Farming. Therefore, it includes Northbridge, Northbridge Pointe, Northpark AND Westcreek, the so called North River Communities in the 91354 ZIP code. Some people have begun in the last ten years to speak of these areas as “North Valencia.” It also includes Westridge across the 5. The original “North Valencia” were the tracts up and down the Seco Canyon corridor that was a complete and total invention of real estate folks in the 1980′s and had nothing to do with Newhall Land and Farming.
  21. ToddMay 6, 2012 at 2:34 pm
    Can’t we all just get along?
  22. AlpinerMay 6, 2012 at 10:34 pm
    My Northbridge house beats out any Old Orchard home I or II..:)
  23. LarMccMay 7, 2012 at 11:21 am
    Sure thing, enjoy your Northbridge ‘paseos.’
  24. spineflower2May 7, 2012 at 12:38 pm
    Yes, the Seco tracts (mostly on the west side) are the non-NLF “North Valencia” tracts (the east side being the original 1940s Bonelli tract, including a little street called “Santa Clarita,” decades before cityhood, and ironically the site of some heavy “Cityfication” attempts on long-grandfathered homes/driveways, etc). The developer using the name “North Valencia” was sued, but at that point in time, NLF had neglected to trademark the name “Valencia” and lost. NLF then successfully lobbied the post office to at least assign a different zip code so “proper class distinctions” could be maintained.
  25. SCV LoverMay 6, 2012 at 3:23 pm
    Saugus rules, Valencia drools. Reppin Bouquet and Seco all day, everyday. WOO WOO
  26. Mike MMay 7, 2012 at 7:47 am
    As a biker for many years, on sport bikes originally, 70′s era commuter bikes and now big bore cruisers, every time I read one of these articles it hurts deeply. MOST bikers are really great people – there’s something about being so exposed to the world around you that makes you feel both more connected to and responsible for people around you. Having dropped my own bike for the first time ever though, about two weeks ago, on San Francisquito Canyon Road, I can tell you that anyone taking that road at high speed is an arrogant prick, whether on a bike or in a car. I have been tailgated there repeatedly by cars who drive excessive speeds, and watched a truck go off into the dirt just last weekend because he was going too fast to make the corner. I was only doing 25 or so when I went down over a patch of gravel in the middle of the lane, and I am nursing a sprained shoulder, a cracked rib, and quite a bit of road rash. I was thanking myself repeatedly for having spent good money on a SNELL certified full face helmet though as I felt my head bounce (yes, bounce) off the pavement when I went down. I know it sounds super old-man of me to say this, but it would be really fantastic if everybody would just slow the hell down on the canyon roads – bikes, cars, etc. Nobody needs to be dying over this…
  27. mikeMay 7, 2012 at 8:58 am
    Well put. We’re glad you’re gonna be OK.

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