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a fellow rider was killed yesterday here in Raleigh....the story says he was wearing the proper gear...however I notice a loafer in the picture...
R.I.P prayers go out to the family of the rider.
Motorcyclist killed in crash
Truck hits avid rider, former safety instructor south of Raleigh
By OREN DORELL, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- A former motorcycle safety instructor died on his way to work Wednesday morning when his bike slid under a UPS truck that had turned into his path just south of Raleigh.
Dr. James E. MacQueen, 59, of 6825 Penny Road, died at the scene. He was a Raleigh optometrist and an avid motorcycle rider for most of his life. He taught motorcycle safety at Wake Technical Community College in the early 1990s, according to a school official.
The UPS driver, Corydon P. Purdy Jr., 52, of 4335 Southwind Drive in Raleigh has been charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle.
Purdy was traveling west on Tryon Road and attempting to turn left onto Withers Road when he failed to yield to the motorcyclist, who was traveling in the opposite direction on Tryon, said Trooper J.W. Collins of the state Highway Patrol.
Skid marks and debris on the road made clear, Collins said, that MacQueen knew what was about to happen as he approached the intersection on his bright yellow sport bike. The motorcyclist "tried to slow down real hard and actually laid the bike down before he hit the truck," Collins said.
The motorcycle came to rest on its right side under the truck, and MacQueen's body, in a yellow motorcycle jacket, came to rest beyond the truck.
A woman wearing a white lab coat and standing behind the police line at the accident scene said MacQueen was her employer of 10 years.
Willa Bower, an office manager at Optometric Eye Care Center in the Gateway Plaza in south Raleigh, said MacQueen usually arrived at work by 8:40 a.m. but not on Wednesday.
"A co-worker said she heard an ambulance. I decided to go along his route to his house," she said. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
Later Wednesday, a sign on the doctor's office said "Closed due to an emergency."
MacQueen is survived by his wife, Sherry Brabbin MacQueen, daughter Heather MacQueen of Charleston, S.C., and several grandchildren.
MacQueen was originally from Charleston, W.Va., and returned to the mountains with his brothers and friends on yearly motorcycle trips they dubbed DILLIGAF, said his wife's sister, Elizabeth Forbes. (Forbes said the acronym stood for "Do I look like I give a flip?")
MacQueen was on a Suzuki on Wednesday, but he rode BMW bikes most often.
"Every BMW he had painted that screaming yellow color for safety," Forbes said.
His brother, Don MacQueen, 46, of Shelby said MacQueen first started riding while in college in the mid-1960s. And he owned a motorcycle for most of the years between 1973 and now. Eventually all three MacQueen brothers got bikes and started taking getaways together. The group grew to five, and sometimes more.
One of the friends, Russ Clayton, 57, was among those who gathered at Jim MacQueen's home Wednesday afternoon.
"We all rode hard, but rode safe," Clayton said.
MacQueen wore all the proper safety gear, but there might not have been much he could have done to protect himself Wednesday morning.
A major cause of crashes between motorcycles and other vehicles is the other vehicles turning in front of motorcycles, said Dave Galloway, director of the N.C. Motorcycle Safety Program. The program, for which MacQueen taught, trained 8,340 riders at 35 community colleges last year.
Other drivers need to "watch out for motorcycles," Galloway said
Same here...my thoughts and prayers to the family. 'Misdeanor...death'. those should not be used in the same sentence. Dude driving the truck should be charged with manslaughter...plain and simple
Damn that sucks. All those years of motorcycle training that can't be passed on. Also goes to show you always have to be on the lookout for the dumb fuck waiting to turn in front of you... RIP...
My thoughts go out to his family. I just drove through Raliegh yesterday am.
Thanks for your service MacQueen, to the motorcycle community. Who knows how many lives he helped save.
RIP.
Rider Down...
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