THEY FELL LIKE DOMINOS

A day of riding to raise money for a charity turned tragic Saturday evening in Eaton Township.

A group of motorcycle riders were riding west on Route 82 in Eaton Township Saturday evening when witnesses say a lead bike suddenly stopped causing a chain reaction crash of 5 bikes. Eaton Township Firefighter and Incident Commander Glen Thompson said that 5 victims were taken from the scene, 4 by helicopter and 1 by ground. Thompson said that the injuries varied and went from minor to critical, the worst going by choppers. Thompson also said that the bikes were spread all over the road. “We had bikes all over, ditch to ditch and the debris field was between 150 to 200’ long.”

Trooper Christopher Ausse of the Ohio State Patrol said that the bikes were in a pack heading westbound before the crash. “It appears that one of the bikes missed its stop and hit its brakes. Once he hit his brakes he went into a fishtail and then another motorcycle ran into the back of his motorcycle causing it to flip and at that point they were ejected and the bike caught on fire. The other two bikes traveling behind them had nowhere to go and then struck those two motorcycles coming to rest in the middle of the road.”

Dan Radosevich, his brother and two friends were across the street at the time of the crash. Radosevich and the others said that there had been a party going on across the street all day with a different group of motorcycle riders with bikers coming and going all day. “We saw the bikes coming down the road and the first two bikes, like right before the driveway slammed on their brakes and then one of the two front bikes flipped over and then the two bikes behind him ran over him.” Radosevich said that bike parts were flying all over the place. Alek Radosevich said that the rider one the bike that caught fire was able to scramble away from the bike in time before being burned. “He ran away over to the yard then just laid down in the grass. I could see one of the guys with bones sticking out of his leg and you could tell that his arm was messed up too. This whole thing was messed up.”

One of the bikers, the third bike back from the lead bike, was arrested at the scene for DUI. This biker’s passenger received the worst injuries. There was also a handgun with a holster found in the ditch.

Trooper Ausse said that he attributes excessive speed and following too close to the cause of the crash. “The other thing is, it doesn’t matter how long you have been riding a bike, when you get into groups like this it is very different. People think that just because they have been riding for 10 or 15 years that they know what they are doing and when they get into groups like this where they may not be familiar with the other riders and their habits, things like this could happen.” Trooper Ausse reminds us that with cars the rule is for every 10mph there should be 1 car length, that is a good reactionary gap, this rule holds true as well for motorcycle riders.

Eaton Township received mutual aid from Columbia Township and Grafton Village.

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