Geezer with a Grudge: Does Anyone See A Trend Here?

Jul 5, 2016

Does Anyone See A Trend Here?

* A Mankato, Minn., man was injured at 12:19 p.m. when his 2014 Victory motorcycle hit a deer on Minnesota Highway 16 west of Peterson in Fillmore County. Police say Mark Fromm, 59, was flown to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

* On Saturday, a 55-year-old Oakdale, Minn., woman who was a passenger on a 2006 Harley-Davidson was killed about 3:25 p.m. on U.S. Highway 61 in Goodhue County when the motorcycle ran off the road and hit a sign. The State Patrol identified the woman as Janean Thielman. The driver, Joseph Frisch, 55, of Madelia, Minn., was seriously injured.

* The driver of a 2006 Harley-Davidson and his passenger died about 3 p.m. Saturday when their motorcycle crossed over the center line on eastbound Minnesota Highway 95 in Chisago County and struck another vehicle, triggering a three-car crash. Collin Orth, 35, of Milaca, Minn., and his passenger, Sara Orth, 34, of Milaca, died in the crash.

* An Appleton, Wis., man and a female passenger on his 2014 Harley-Davidson were injured when the motorcycle struck a deer at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on southbound U.S. Highway 53 in International Falls. Mark Natzke, 53, and his passenger, Tammy Natzke, 53, were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

* A fourth motorcyclist was killed earlier in the week after his 2013 Victory hit a deer about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday on Minnesota Highway 223 in Clearwater. The man was identified by the State Patrol as 61-year-old Richard Engen of Clearbrook.

After reading this list of crash descriptions, my wife said, “They ought to sell those machines with a theme song, ‘All My Trials, Lord.’” She gets it. Deer or no deer, it doesn’t appear that anyone can ride those hippobikes competently.

2 comments:

Trobairitz said...: Sounds like Oregon is trying to give you a run for your money. 6 motorcyclists dead this past week on Oregon roads. Mostly failure to negotiate a turn. We just shake our heads when we read about it. People not turning their head, over riding their sight distance, etc.

Here is an interesting link for you to scroll......
http://www.flashalert.net/news.html?id=1002

This only lists 5 of the accidents I believe.; 7/5/16, 2:38 PM
T.W. Day said...: We are our own worst enemy, consistently.; 7/7/16, 12:20 PM

The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.