As one of the safety officer’s for California IV I find myself thinking, on a regular basis, about safety issues that should be shared with chapter members. It is a normal thing for us to discuss recent occurrences or to go over old tried and true motorcycle safety methods. Sometimes, however, life throws you a curve ball you just never see coming.

This past Saturday, after the chapter meeting for California IV, Tina (my wife) and I decided to head over to Calimesa to visit Belts and Buckles so I could have patches sewn on a new vest.  We arrived without issue, took care of business, and had lunch at a nearby restaurant.  We departed and decided to hop onto Interstate 10 eastbound and take 60 West on home.  About a half mile before coming to the 60 split we saw smoke.  Traffic came to a standstill and we were stuck on the side of freeway. Now, it was a HOT day, but we shut down the bikes and made the best of it.

About 30 minutes into the ordeal traffic started to move.  We started up the bikes and slowly went forward.  There was still a lot of smoke and visibility was very limited.  We moved up to the ramp taking us to the westbound 60 and exited the 10.  As we did so we were engulfed in smoke.  I’m talking ZERO visibility. I edged forward, hoping Tina was following on her bike, I suddenly saw a fire engine coming at me the wrong way on the ramp.  I swerved left, he swerved right, and I was forced to a stop.  The smoke was intense, making it difficult to breath.  I heard Tina on the CB yelling that the palm tree to our left was on fire!  Huge burning palm fronds were falling on us! I made the decision to charge forward, what else could we do?  Seconds later we emerged onto the 60, out of the smoke and into clear (well sort of) air.  Tina keyed up and said she needed to pull over, she thought her clothes were on fire.  A quick check showed she had holes in her shirt, and burn marks on her pants.  She had a couple of pink marks on her skin, but thankfully no burns.  We had ash and soot all over the bikes. After determining we had no injuries, and we were not on fire, we continued home, making a stop for something cool to drink on the way.

I have no clue who made the decision to allow traffic to move forward (multiple police and fire agencies were on hand) but it was absolutely the wrong decision.

Morale of the story….  Who bleep’n knows.  All I can say is this.  It scared the (insert expletive) out of us.  I suppose all I can say is, keep your eyes open, judge the situation, and make a decision. 

Ride with Pride

 John Lopotosky 

               ©2004 Blue Knights California Chapter IV,  All rights reserved.

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