Sharing the Road

Sharing the Road was written after the recent tragedy in the Bill Henry escort where another rider was killed escorting Bill’s remains westbound on I-80 near Atlantic, Iowa. We were in the left lane running about 75 mph (125 bikes), and an 81 year old driver tried to get over from the right lane because of a horse trailer on the shoulder, but no one let him in so he came over anyway. Several factors caused this, too many bikes in one group (on the CB radio Truckers were pissed at us for holding up one lane until I told them we were escorting a Vietnam Veteran), the lead riders were friends of Bill Henry and not road captains (we kept changing lanes at 60-80 mph so the traffic coming up on us were not able plan ahead and they were flipping us off), the elderly driver felt trapped in his lane approaching the horse trailer and didn’t have the skill or patience so he panicked (he clipped the back of a bike as he moved over into the group) causing him to the medium and four bikes to the pavement in a chain reaction, the Rider that died was on the pavement and hit by a semi following behind the group. With a group that large I would have preferred running the two lane highways that led to the same place but at a slower speed.

John ‘Hammer’ Hanzlik
ALR Road Captain
Chapter 1 Omaha, Neb.