Slain by ‘The Dragon’
Graham ranked the most dangerous county in the state for motorcyclists.
By Nick Carter, Graham Star
ncarter@grahamstar.com
Graham
County
may be a thrilling and scenic place to ride a motorcycle, but it's also the most dangerous.
According to 2004 statistics compiled by AAA, Graham ranked first as the most dangerous county in the state for motorcycle riders in 2004.
Graham had the largest percentage of motorcycle accidents, the largest percentage of injury crashes involving motorcycles and the second largest percentage of fatal motorcycle accidents in the state.
This is the first year AAA has included a separate category for motorcycle accidents. Graham's designation as the most dangerous place to ride a motorcycle is not based on the total number of accidents, it is based on the percentage of motorcycle accidents in' comparison to total crashes in all vehicles for the county.
Sarah Davis, with AAA public relations, attributed the high percentage of motorcycle accidents in
Graham
County
to the "Tail of the Dragon," an 11-mile stretch of Hwy 129 with 318 twists and turns. The Tail of the Dragon is well-known to motorcyclers nationwide and receives a lot of motorcycle traffic. "Motorcycles are vastly overrepresented in
Graham
County
's totals,"
Davis
said. "What that tells me is, there are some thrill seekers out there that are never going to learn their lesson. They're taking those turns on the Tail of the Dragon way too fast." There were 184 total vehicle collisions reported in the county last year. Of that number, 45 involved motorcycles. Twenty-four percent of the county's accidents involved motorcycles.
Graham
County
had just two fatal crashes last year and one of them involved a motorcycle. Forty-five percent of all crashes with injuries in the county involved motorcycles. "We want to make sure everyone is taking those curves at a safe speed and using common sense,"
Davis
said.
Even though this is the first year motorcycles have. been put into a separate category in the study,
Davis
said the results are part of a trend for the county. In previous years, the percentage of motorcycle accidents have been very high, but they were reported separately from other accidents.
There were 3,070 motorcycle accidents in the state last year. Of those, 117 were fatal.
OUR RESPONSE
The Tail of the Dragon would like to answer Nick.Carter who wrote this article for the Graham Star and Sara Davis of the AAA who was either terribly misquoted or knows next to nothing about statistics and the volume of motorcycle traffic here in Graham County. Knowing the media there is a good chance she was misquoted.
First of all the basic duty of the media is to report the factual news and sometimes insert their opinions on the editorial page labeled as such. This article, typical of the print media especially, tells only part of the true story and adds personal opinion to what should be an informative news article. Other items in the article are simply untrue. We suggest that you research your articles a little better before you go to print Nick. We also suggest that you learn the copyright laws before using photos that belong to someone else and are so labeled.
We’d like to clear-up the primary fallacy/opinion in this article. Does the one death on a motorcycle as compared to one death in another motor vehicle make this county the “most dangerous in the state for motorcycles”? Does the fact that 24 percent of all accidents involved motorcycles make this county the “most dangerous in the state for motorcycles”? Does the fact that the percentage of motorcycle accidents have been high in previous years make this county the “most dangerous in the state for motorcycles”?
The answer to all these questions is of course no. Consider the unmentioned fact that during most of the year motorcycles outnumber other vehicular traffic here in
Graham
County
. By inference, if a large percentage of the vehicles on the road are motorcycles then
Graham
County
is one of the safest in the state for motorcycles. We hardly think that one motorcycle death vs. one other vehicular death offers enough statistical data to draw any inferences from, especially that
Graham
County
is the “most dangerous in the state for motorcycles”.
If the AAA is making such statements as appeared in this article then we have lost a lot of respect for that organization. They are much too established to jump to such ridiculous statements. If Sara Davis made such statements as the Star attributed to her then the AAA should have her job. Here is one good reason to fire her …. her inept statistical inferences. Want another …. her failure to research the volume of motorcycle traffic vs. other vehicles here in
Graham
County
. Want yet another …. the Tail of the Dragon is not in
Graham
County
. As a matter of fact it is not even in
North Carolina
. The entire 11 miles known as the Tail of the Dragon is in
Tennessee
. Get your facts straight Sara or get out of town and leave the “thrill seekers” to have at it on the most dangerous roads.
Here is a paragraph from another article which details the same statistics, but draws no conclusions:
Haywood, Swain among safest for travel in
North Carolina
by Jon Ostendorff, STAFF WRITER, Asheville Citizen Times
published
December 23, 2005
Back in the mountains,
Graham
County
had the highest percentage of motorcycle crashes. It is home to the Tail of the Dragon, a stretch of N.C. 143 that is popular with bikers worldwide. One out of every four
Graham
County
traffic crashes involved a motorcycle, AAA Carolinas reported.
This writer, who makes the same error about the location of the Tail of the Dragon, can be somewhat excused since he works in
Asheville
. Either of these writers could have called us to confirm that their newspaper article was factual, but neither did.
Here are observations from the Tail of the Dragon:
We feel that the area roads do present a challenge to motorcycle riders. In some cases the pavement needs resurfacing and unnerves some riders. The steep and twisting roads prove difficult for some riders. Some riders like to sightsee at the beautiful mountains instead of watching the road ahead. We know we have the best roads in
America
and want everyone to come and enjoy them. Just be aware of what you might encounter.
There will always be accidents here in
Graham
County
and the number of motorcycle accidents will increase as the number of motorcycle riders increase.
There are all kinds of motorcycle riders as there are other vehicle drivers. Some are safe and others are not. Some are alert and others are not. Some ride fast, some ride slow. Some are skilled, some are not.
The government cannot protect everyone from everything, especially themselves. Accept the statistics as a reminder that we take chances when we go out the door and get in the car or on the motorcycle. That chance is called living. Don’t want to take the risk? Stay in house your whole life, but be warned, even that has risks.
We feel that statistically the riders who come to our area are safer than riding in any metropolitan area. We cringe when we have to get on an Interstate or have to negotiate city traffic. We’ll take these “most dangerous roads” any day.
