Sad News

[bigwater]

A very good friend of mine and member of this forum from Queensland Australia, Dave Drane, was killed in a single vehicle accident. He was riding his Harley and lost control of it. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but died shortly after arrival.

RIP Dave. You will be missed.

[FX]

So sorry to hear this.

R.I.P., Dave.

[FX]

Dave was still active on the forums too.

[jimbear56]

Always sorry to hear of a brother rider getting hurt or killed in an accident

[bigwater]

Been trying to get through to his wife. Got word from another friend in Australia that she wanted to talk to me, and I was up until 7:30 this morning trying to call her but the phone just kept ringing busy. I finally gave up and snagged an hour and a half of sleep. She's 14 hours ahead of me, so it's 1:30 Tuesday morning over there, 11:30 Monday morning here. I'll try to call her again later once it gets to be a reasonable hour, probably 9:00 my time tonight, which will be 11:00 in the morning for her. I want to get the details on the accident. All I've heard for sure was that he lost control on a slick road. I don't know if he got tangled up with the bike, or if he slammed into something... but I do know that this has torn my guts out. He was such a good friend.

[bigwater]

Well, alcohol and anger were involved in the accident. He got into a hot argument with his wife afer a night of partying, and sped off on his bike. About two miles from his house the back tire slipped out from under him, and 1365 lbs of Road King kicked his ass. It bounced off of him four or five times. Massive internal injuries and massive brain bucket injuries even though he was wearing a helmet. Service is Monday in Queensland, which would make it Sunday here. I'm stil torn up by this. RIP Dave... I'll miss you my brother.

[bigwater]

Well I heard last night from a mutual friend that flew from Melbourne to Brisbrane for the funeral. He said there were at least 500 people there for the service. The entire HOG club for Queensland, all the members of his golf club. Many friends and family. I was told it was standing room only for the service. I wish I could have been there, but 16-1/2 hour one way flight time and a $2200.00 plane ticket prevented me from going. Plus I don't have a passport.

[FX]

We will miss Dave. I wish I had met him when he was here. Thanks for keeping us up on the issue, Ron. Condolences.

[bigwater]

Yeah, if you had met him you'd still be crying like I am. I haven't been this torn up over a death since my mom collided with an 18 wheeler in 2001. Dave was one of the kindest souls you'd ever meet. He had his hot spots, but they were always tempered with care. I just can't believe this even after over a week.

"They" often ask why god lets bad things happen to good people, but bad people get away with whatever they want. I've been pondering that a lot the last few days. I broke my neck drag racing back in 2002, and gave it up for good. Now I'm thinking about giving up riding for good. Dave was too good to have been taken out by his own stupidity. Opening the throttle on a slick road and letting the rear wheel get out from under you is not anything an experienced rider should let happen. Not having the presence of mind to kick off the bike when it does go down and get as far away from it as you can is not anything an experienced rider should let happen.

I just wish he was still alive so I could lecture him over and over on how to handle a wreck like that. If he had just stabilized himself into a slide as he went down and kicked himself away from the bike, he'd have come away with road rash and that would have been it. He was on a straight away, and opened it up and just lost control. A Road King bouncing off of you a few times is a different story though.

People don't think in the heat of the moment though. I understand that. After going down several times, I've sort of lost the "OH SHIT" feeling and developed a "what do I do now" feeling.

I'm still sick to my stomach.