Strangest BMW Story Nominee

[ka5ysy]

Actual Story here:
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/...ith_rattl.html



Text only:


5-foot rattlesnake, motorcycle make bad combination

Thursday, December 06, 2007
By Walt Philbin New Orleans Times-Picayune

A motorcyclist was critically injured Wednesday afternoon when he failed to
make a curve while transporting an apparently dead 5-foot rattlesnake, New
Orleans police said.
Police accident investigators speculate that he was distracted when twine
securing the snake to the back of the motorcycle may have come loose as he
entered a curve on Almonaster Avenue.
Police don't know how, when or where the cyclist had gotten the rattlesnake,
where he was taking it or why. But they said they believed the snake and the
possibility that it was about to fall off caused the accident as the
motorcyclist was heading into a bend in the eastern New Orleans road.

"It was one of the strangest accidents I've responded to in my 37 years on the
New Orleans Police Department," said Lt. Melvin Howard, assistant commander of
the Traffic Division.
The man lost control of his 650 cc BMW motorcycle and struck a curb as he
headed west in the 5900 block of Almonaster about 1:15 p.m., police said. The
impact threw him across the median and into the eastbound lanes where he came
to rest, his yellow helmet left in the westbound lanes along with his
motorcycle, police and a witness said.
He was taken to a hospital in "very critical" condition, police said.
The lone witness to the accident, Matt Rutan, said the motorcyclist sped past
his truck as Rutan was driving back from a landfill .
"At first I thought it was a piece of rope dragging behind the motorcycle,"
Rutan said, but it turned out to be a 5-foot canebrake rattlesnake secured by
twine to the motorcycle.
The motorcycle got at most a half a mile ahead of Rutan, he said, when he saw
the cyclist "lift up a little and twist around in his seat like he was
attending to something on the back of his bike."
In doing so, the motorcyclist failed to negotiate a right curve in the road
and struck what Rutan judged to be an 8-inch concrete curb. He was ejected and
came to rest about 150 feet down the road, Rutan said. He said the motorcycle
flipped many times and ended up in the westbound lanes more than 200 feet down
the road.
Rutan stopped his truck and called 911 as he ran to the injured man and saw he
was apparently unconscious, he said.
An ambulance responded within 10 minutes, he said.
Rutan discovered that what he had thought was a rope was really a snake
"loosely tied by a rough kind of twine" to the back of the motorcycle.
Although Rutan said the snake definitely moved its body a number of times
before police arrived, one officer said he believed the movement may have been
due to post-mortem reflexes. The snake's rattle was apparently cut off before
the accident, an officer said. It appeared that its fangs had been removed as
well.

[DJ Downunder]

What a nutter...

DJ

[Buckster]

I guess David Hough can add this to his Proficient Motorcycling series.

[wncbmw]

he was distracted when twine securing the snake to the back of the motorcycle may have come loose

Should have used Rok Straps!

Besides, any fool knows rattlesnakes should be carried in a saddlebag!

[machew01]

Yes indeed, someone else's bag.

mac

[Boxer]

I don't get it.
I've seen this story circulating around all over the internet. What's so strange about towing a rattlesnake?