Head-on crash kills 2 in Deltona, pushes Bike Week toll to 6

[3984comment]

drinking an drug riding motorcycle does not mix. with the law looking the other way 99.5% bad thing will happen.

[6764comment]

John wrote:

at least half of the "outlaw" motorcycle riders in daytona are wannabe white collar workers who put relatively little miles on their bikes during the year, then go and ride/crash for this gathering.
While many years ago Daytona was outlaws, now theyre just posers trying to look tough.

so true

[kitty]

i hope there's no more death's there. my brother in-law is up there now. don't rag on bikers. there's really cool ones (my bro-inlaw is one of them!). i use to go to bike fest when i was younger. it was a lot of fun and you see some really nice bikes there.

[nightranger]

All could have been avoided what a shame. The thing with most of these is they probably were not experienced riders. All these could have been prevented if they had obeyed the rules and payed attention to traffic rules and be prepared for the unexpected,

[Death wish]

anybody that rides a motorcycle in florida has a death wish

[KOJAK]

JoJo wrote:

Outlaw motorcycle riders. Treat them as terrorists! Let Bush enact a federal mandate to get rid of them!

Got an idea Treat people such as you as TERRORIST BAIT cause we wouldn't miss you and your idiotic thoughts

[chris]

my dad got hit by a car backing out on aside street all the recks that ihear about hit me

[sondra]

I love you, and your comments!

[Davesdo]

....Hey Bob We aready have a great emergency room system.We have trauma centers down the whole I-4 corridor.You guys come down and some are good and some are stupid.Please keep the dumb ones home.We hate hosing god's people blood off the roads

[Catalyst]

Glenn wrote:

MOST HARLEY OWNERS ARE KNEEPAD USING GAYS UNABLE TO DRIVE THE ASSUMED SYMBOL THEY BOUGHT WITH A BANK LOAN.
DID YOU EVER SEE SO MUCH ERSATZ MACHO IN YOUR LIFE? LEATHER - TATTOOS ETC.
MANY WARE EARING'S AND MAKEUP AS WELL.
THEY SMELL OF 'BO' ON PURPOSE AND IF CONFRONTED BY REAL MEN - THEY OFTEN POUT OR MANY EVEN WEEP!
SO MANY BEER TABS & TIPS SKIPPED!

Indeed. If you do an AOL member search using the key words "Harley" and "hairy" or "Harley" and "furry" you get mostly gay men's profiles. Perhaps it has something to do with vibrating the prostate?

[Big E]

sglide wrote:

only 6 dead - not bad for a party with over half a million people riding motorcycles - would have been that many dead if they were in cars too i bet

You right there are a lot of cool bikes but there are a lot of tough guy wana bees that get a bike and some leather and thjink they're the shit. I've had to bash up quite a few burring my bouncer days. You'd be surprise how quick they turn coward.

An accident is an accident but a dumb ass gets what they ask for.

[Tammy]

JoJo wrote:

Outlaw motorcycle riders. Treat them as terrorists! Let Bush enact a federal mandate to get rid of them!

Are you asinine or what!!!!! Maybe we should treat you as a terrorist and have Bush get rid of you.

[Shira Russo]

Ray Rios ( Volusia County Death # 1 )drove his bike some 1800 miles to Daytona from Arizona. He was a well experienced rider. It only takes a split second error and the worst can happen. But remember one thing. These are PEOPLE...with FAMILIES! Treat them with respect! This was in Saturdays paper:

Chance encounter followed by tragedy

By SANDRA FREDERICK
Staff Writer

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- It was dark as Shira Russo sat on the back of her husband Joe's Harley-Davidson, wind whipping past her face.

At first she was hesitant about being on the road with thousands of other bikes and cars during the annual pilgrimage known as Bike Week. The dotted lines painted on the road whizzed by with speed, but she quickly settled in and began to feel like "one of the pack."

"It's a different experience," the New Smyrna Beach woman said Thursday. "You don't know who you are riding next to, but you are sharing the road."

But Monday night, a twist of fate changed her perspective forever.

During a stop at the First Turn in Port Orange, the Russos and a group of friends sat next to two Michigan men and struck up a conversation. More than an hour passed and a newfound friendship was formed. The parties exchanged telephone numbers with hopes of meeting up later in the week.

The "locals" and "visitors" said their goodbyes and Raymond Rios and Brent Berridge headed to their machines and were off to their next stop -- Main Street.

Minutes later and less than a half-mile north of the First Turn on U.S. 1, Rios passed his friend but lost control of his bike and hit the curb. He was thrown and landed in the road. He died a short time later at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

"I didn't see it happen. I just saw sparks," Berridge said from his Midland, Mich., home on Thursday. He stayed in Daytona Beach a few days so he could get the twisted black 2000 Electra Glide back from the police and took it home to Rios' family in a U-Haul.

Shira Russo found out the next day the first fatality of Bike Week was the man she had befriended the night before. As of Friday, there have been four bike deaths in Volusia and Flagler counties and two bike-related deaths outside the county.

"I don't want him to be just a statistic; I want people to know that he was a special man," she said, tears pooling in her eyes as she stood at the spot where her new friend had crashed. "It makes me realize that when you go out on a bike, you may never come back."

She hung balloons on the utility pole with the message "Rest In Peace Ray" boldly printed on a red Mylar heart.

Rios, a retired auto worker, would have turned 49 Friday. He arrived Sunday around noon from Arizona where he spent the winter. He was here for Bike Week fours years ago and had planned his return trip for several months, meeting 31-year-old Berridge in Daytona Beach for some "free-spirited riding."

The pair decided to take a trek south to Cocoa Beach that afternoon and spent Monday riding the streets of Daytona Beach and taking in the sights on Main Street.

"He was the type of guy that if he walked into a room of 20 people, they would all stop and look at him," Berridge said. "He was the funniest and nicest guy in the world."

The Michigan friend said it will be awhile before he can bring himself to come back to the area.

"I think a few years down the road a bunch of family and friends will come back for Bike Week and ride in memory of him," he said.

For Russo, the chance meeting will be in her memory forever.

"It's not about drinking, speeding and helmets," she said as she held in her hand a few metal pieces of Rios' bike she found in the grass at the scene. "It's about a person."

[e-mail]

[Matt]

Catalyst wrote:

<quoted text>
Indeed. If you do an AOL member search using the key words "Harley" and "hairy" or "Harley" and "furry" you get mostly gay men's profiles. Perhaps it has something to do with vibrating the prostate?

Boy you two really seem to know a lot about Gays, maybe you should come out here to Colorado sometime. The guys and I Would love to show you why so many of us do indeed ride our bikes quite a bit.

Your comments are a bit offensive, buy hey we are all entitled to an opinion, just to let you know, some of us GAYS have crossed the country several times to include ariving at your ralley, wait a minute you do look familiar, thats right, you were my bottom boy last year.

[Matt]

Boy you two really seem to know a lot about Gays, maybe you should come out here to Colorado sometime. The guys and I Would love to show you why so many of us do indeed ride our bikes quite a bit.
Your comments are a bit offensive, buy hey we are all entitled to an opinion, just to let you know, some of us GAYS have crossed the country several times to include ariving at your ralley, wait a minute you do look familiar, thats right, you were my bottom boy last year.

[realist]

you people are pathetic. anytime someone gets killed on a bike we should all take pause and say, "there but for the grace of god...". Instead you people sit here and carry on about all this crap. don't you have anything better to do? there is really no mystique about safe riding. there are tons of books on the subject. I can tell by you all's tone that none of you would ever read them though. You are much too accomplished as riders and way too cool to need to read a damned book about how not to get wrecked. instead the conversation about a man who wrecked and is dead turns into a pathetic discourse on queers, "real bikers vs those you consider to be posers, and all the other BS I see here. Pathetic.

Matt wrote:

Boy you two really seem to know a lot about Gays, maybe you should come out here to Colorado sometime. The guys and I Would love to show you why so many of us do indeed ride our bikes quite a bit.
Your comments are a bit offensive, buy hey we are all entitled to an opinion, just to let you know, some of us GAYS have crossed the country several times to include ariving at your ralley, wait a minute you do look familiar, thats right, you were my bottom boy last year.

[Dawnette]

Wow, it took you over a year to come up with those words of wisdom. Amazing.