Hey... I need your help, or rather a fellow Ducati rider may need mine.... I was on 128N today just before the 128/95 split. I was driving w/ my girlfriend in her A4 when we saw a Monster Dark (looked like a 750/620) pass us... the rider was wearing a black helmet, black jacket and jeans and appeared to have a backpack... he/she proceed to make his/her way through traffic. They weaved a bit in / out of the lanes but best as I could tell was doing 75-80 ish, but a few 2+ lane crossovers caught the attn of an unmarked state cop in a GMC Tahoe well behind him (the cop was next to us while the bike was 1/4 mile up the road... the cop lit it up and went in pursuit. Now, this is where it all gets a bit IZ_... as we were following a good clip behind and didn't see everything that happened. Let me repeat this, we *did not see everything that happened.*
What I DID see was the cop approach the bike from behind in the left lane, then disappear from view around a corner. I caught glimpses of the bike moving to the center lane, then the right lane... looking as if he/she was pulling over. Then they went around the right hand bend just before the 95 split. As we came around the bend, the cop's SUV was parked *in front* of the bike in the breakdown lane, and at a slight angle to the traffic / breakdown lane, the bike at this point was on it's side and had fallen over. As we approached the 2 vehicles, it appeared the cop was *pissed* and the rider didn't seem too happy either, and we saw them wrestling / shoving.... it appeared that the cop finally got the rider to take a seat on the guard rail. By the time we circled back, there were 5-6 other cruisers either pulled over or rushing to get to the scene. I doubled back again to come back up the north bound side and the bike was on a flat-bed with the rider in custody.
Now.. I do *not* know what happened. I don't know if the bike simply wouldn't pull over and the cop had to push him to the side of the road, or if the bike was in the act of pulling over and somehow just dropped the bike... or a combination of the biker not pulling over fast enough and the cop deciding to make sure he stopped asap, causing the rider to drop the bike. From the angle of the officer's Tahoe, it looks like he cut the rider off (you almost never see a cop pull in FRONT of the vehicle being pulled over)... as the bike was on the ground just behind the officer's SUV which clearly wasn't pulled over in a parallel fashion. We also noted that the SUV was moved by the time we passed by the scene again.
I am just hoping someone here knows the rider involved, I would love to talk to them and get his / her side of the story. The rider in me fears the officer lost his cool and made a bonehead move cutting the rider off, and the rider was obviously pissed having just dropped the bike. I can easily see that situation spiraling out of control. I hate that I didn't follow closer to it all to see them actually pull over, so again, I don't know what happened.
The rider could just have easily deserved any / all forceful action that was taken, for all I know the rider could have had a weapon. But I can't stop thinking about it, which is why I turned around. The way the bike was on the ground and the SUV was angled infront of him, it looks like the rider got cut off. If the rider had been in the process of finding a safe place to pull over... and the cop decided to cut him off causing him to drop his bike.. well then I hope to find the rider, recommend a good lawyer (I know a very good one, who also is a rider), and I will be more than happy to tell anyone involved what I observed.
I really don't know which way to go, but the rider in me got a bad feeling about it and I feel awful I didn't see the whole thing.
Hopefully someone here knows him... if so contact me off list if you like at
scottieducati@gmail.comScottie D.
