The Dragon claims another one

[GaryB12VA]

Dragon claims victim
2005-08-14
by Anna C. Irwin of The Daily Times Staff

An Illinois man was killed Saturday morning when his motorcycle wrecked on U.S. 129 less than a mile from the North Carolina line.

Jeremy M. Stuck, 31, of Dixon, Ill., died when his 2005 Kawasaki ZX-10R motorcycle slid on a curve half a mile from the state line and Stuck lost control. The motorcycle went into the oncoming lane and hit the front of a 2000 Toyota Tundra, then off into a ditch.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Ron McDonald said the motorcycle was traveling toward the state line at 10 a.m. Saturday and the truck driven by Todd E. McKeehan of Robbinsville, N.C. was traveling into Blount County. McDonald said McKeehan, who pastors a church in Robbinsville, had his wife Melissa and 3-year-old daughter Abbey in the truck with him but no one in the vehicle was injured.

The trooper said Stuck apparently died on impact with the front of the truck. He said the Graham County, N.C., Ambulance Service, Rural/Metro Ambulance Service, and a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer responded to the accident scene. Stuck's body was taken to Blount Memorial Hospital by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service.

The death is the 13th traffic fatality of the year in Blount County. The seven traffic fatalities since June 30 have all been individuals riding motorcycles.

Stuck's death is the third during that period on an 11-mile section of U.S. 129 known as the Dragon. The winding roadway features more than 300 curves and attracts motorcyclists from across the country. Two motorcyclists, one from Florida and the other from Maryland, were killed in accidents July 21 and July 22 on the Dragon.


Be careful out there folks

[PeteSC]

Actually, if the last fatalities were in July....it seems like the fatality rate is down a bit.
  I haven't checked in a while....maybe they're still doing increased enforcement.

   I'm sorry a local family, including a little girl, ended up involved in this.

[banditII]

I think a lot of riders not familiar with the Dragon are so excited to be there, they don't give themselves time to get used to it.  It's easy to want to go too fast in the straights and it's easy to overshoot the curves.  I stay away from the place on weekends.  November is a good time to ride Deals Gap, to me at least.  Not long ago I heard of a man and his son, riding double crashed.  The father was killed, the son lived but will surely carry that emotional scar forever.  It's a sad thing.  

Warren