I-57 motorcycle crash kills two, injures two more

Misuse of an emergency turnaround has resulted in a motorcycle accident which killed two and seriously injured two others.  The crash happened late Saturday night on I-57 just north of I-80 in far south suburban Cook County.  One motorcyclist was traveling southbound and decided to use the emergency turnaround to head northbound.  As he came out of the emergency turnaround, he cut off a group of motorcycles which were traveling north on I-57.  Three motorcycles crashed into the one which came out of the turnaround.

Two male drivers of the motorcycles were taken from the scene, but were pronounced dead shortly thereafter at South Suburban Hopsital.  Two female passengers were thrown from the motorcycle and had to be airlifted by helicopter to the trauma center at Christ Hospital.

One of the reasons that motorcyclists enjoy using highways is that they should be free of people emerging into their paths, as has happened so many other times.  When using the interstate, these riders should have had the right to expect that there would not be anyone turning into their path, especially from an emergency turnaround, which is never well-marked.  At the speeds that they were traveling (and I am not implying that they were speeding, either), there would have been little oppotunity to avoid a collision with this other motrcycle. 

As for this other motorcyclist, he should have  known better.  The turnarounds are for emergency vehicles only. When he made the turnaround, he should have been able to see the headlights on the oncoming motorcycles and realized that turning in front of them was likely to cause an accident.  There are so many layers of poor judgments on his part it is really difficult to describe, but it is clear that the blame for this motorcycle crash lies on him.