CBC - A Truro high school student scheduled to graduate Friday evening died Thursday morning after crashing his new motorcycle.
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Lloyd Gibbs and his wife were eating breakfast when they heard a thud outside their home.
"She thought it might be our animals out back. We have farm animals. And she went and looked and there was nothing wrong with them. She looked out the front window and couldn’t see anything,” Gibbs said.
They were having a late breakfast and continued eating until they heard a man screaming.
"About 30 minutes later, we heard this scream of a gentleman running up our front lawn hollering, 'My son is dead, my son is dead,' " Gibbs said.Gibbs called 911, and police and paramedics arrived just after 12:20 p.m.
Gibbs said he went to see what was happening, and saw a woman leaning over Lewis's body.
Graduation gift from parents
"And that was his mother, I found out afterwards. She spent about an hour giving him CPR. And then the medics took over and they had him hooked up to all the equipment and the paddles. But 20 minutes later, they said, 'He's gone,' " Gibbs said.
The teenager’s parents had gone looking for him when he didn’t return home, he said.
Lewis was supposed to graduate from the Cobequid Educational Centre in Truro with 430 of his classmates Friday. The motorcycle he was driving had been a graduation gift from his parents.
The teen had gotten his motorcycle licence just hours before he crashed.
Chignecto-Central Regional School Board superintendent Noel Hurley said everyone at the school and many in the community are grieving.
"What would usually be the happiest day of the school year has a pall over it because of this unfortunate accident," Hurley said.
Grief counsellors were at the Cobequid Educational Centre Friday and will also be there Saturday.
NOVA SCOTIA - An 18-year-old male is dead following a single motorcycle crash yesterday afternoon in Colchester Country.Colchester RCMP say the crash happened at 12:20 p.m. and the driver was found dead at the scene. Police say the motorcycle left Lower Harmony Road and no other vehicles were involved.
Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash. The victims name won’t be released until next of kin is notified.
The 18-year-old was a student at Cobequid Education Centre in Truro, and was to graduate Friday.
CTV reported it was also his first day with his motorcycle licence and his parents discovered the body when they were out searching for him.
The Truro Daily News (above photo credit) has identified the teen as Gage Lewis. See Cause of fatal motorcycle accident under investigation for more on this story.
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8 comments:
Sadly, this tragedy and the fact it was his parents who found him, proves how speed and inexperience continue to prove deadly for any new rider, regardless of age.
There are hundreds of motorcycle courses across NS. Some cost as little as $400. There's no reason for any rider to lose control at ANY speed. Riders can be taught at ANY age how to regain control, how to swerve, how to stop safely etc. But if you're speeding along with no clue what to do when momentum takes over than that's it, it's game over.
It depends on how one looks at it I guess. There are rides who are out for one thing: thrill and risk.
Too bad it's friends and family left to suffer.
I only have experience with dirt bikes on closed country property.
I can't really comment on all the factors that can lead to motorcycle deaths as I don't ride but I have many readers who do.
Police are still investigating this crash and it's always a tremendous blow to every family when a road tragedy occurs.
I do believe the best prevention for road fatalities is education - it is the name of the site after all.
All we know is that yesterday was the first day of this young man's licence. I don't have any further info about his level of experience or what exactly crashed the crash so it's premature to come out and say speed and inexperience.
it's not so much the bikes it's the inexperienced drivers.
I agree they should be confined to tracks and more managed arenas and not streets, but a licence doen't prove you can drive, experience does. Immaturity and inexperience is the cause of every bike accident. You get passed by these kids on the highway like you are standing still and your doing 110 yourself, they blow by my house close to where this accident was so fast you can't get the color of their coats. How many have to die before parents and bike drivers smarten up.
My experience with motorbikes is what I see on the roads, and last week driving back from camping I saw stuff that has caused me to form a theory. Here it is: bikers require (as in uncompromisingly must have) higher discipline in driving than car drivers.
Here's why. I saw the usual highway activity of normal signaling and passing, but at a stop one rider pulled along the shoulder to the front of the pack and sped off at the green light. Surely a traffic violation, and possibly a safety risk even though speed was low and cars were stopped.
But why did he do it? Because he CAN! On a motorbike, there was no physical impediment to him doing it what he did. And just like many other violations (like drunk driving), doing it once makes you confident to do it over and over. But driving a car doesn't afford you opportunities to tear down the striped line when sitting in stop and go traffic, or drive passed on shoulders, or otherwise skirt obstacles easily.
In a car, you are usually stuck where you are (except maybe in an SUV, but that's sometimes a false belief), and you can't start bad out-of-bounds driving habits that later become impossible to resist. Well, not as many are available to even try.
Therefore it's my belief that licence granting and retention for motorbikes must have a higher standard. One that requires demonstration of superior discipline and self-control and the kind of behaviour beyond even the "average masses".
Just thinking out loud...
Wow. Well now. I see the new commenting system is in place. It alienates about 90% of the rhetoric. Good job.
If I want to read the same repetitive 'nothing can be done, all we need to do now is pray for the family' jargon, I'll just head over to the CBC's website. It's amazing how no matter what the crash, no matter where it happened, no matter who was involved, it's the same hand-wringing over and over.
Nobody tries to do anything. Nobody wants the truth. Nobody says: "Hey, How come these kids keep dying in road crashes?"
Or, "Hey, maybe we should put an age restriction on the type of motorcycles new drivers can legally ride". Or, "Hey, maybe seeing as cars and bikes are potentially dangerous, parents actually do become more involved seeing as it's PROVEN teens take risks".
It's upsetting to see stuff that happened when I was a teen in the 1950s continue today. Back then, we can honestly say we didn't know better but 50 plus years later, we've learned the dangers of speed and experience, we know teens will take risks, we know there are dangers to too much/too fast. Yet, parents still turn a blind eye saying 'these things happen' - 'boys will be boys'. 'You send them out into the world and hope for the best'. Really? Today's parents of teenagers really think that's great advice? Some make it sound like raising a teen/young adult is like playing the lottery.
Why do we continue to enable this behavior? Any parent that buys their kid a powerful motorcycle does so fully knowing the risks involved and it has nothing to do with trusting our kids. Teens are not stupid but they are naive. Giving them the privilege of no holds barred access to a high-power street machine should be done with a lot of supervision, training and discipline. This isn't laying blame. This is common sense. If it's putting the kid in a bubble, then so be it. And since we were all teens once ourselves, surely we remember how we would ignore the warning signs and we would what we wanted anyway. There's more to the complexity and responsibility of driving than lecturing children about the dangers. They aren't listening ... did you? But when you become involved and limit the usage and put them on a training/riding schedule, you're helping them understand that the end result of being a good driver takes a long time to achieve.
It can't continue. Why continue to let other families suffer? Why not take a stand and say "no, no more"?
I will sheepishly admit that when I was 13 and vacationing in Europe with my parents I went on a "hunger-strike" until I was allowed unfettered use of an uncle's moped. I won, and only realize as an adult how many of the roadsigns I misunderstood due to ignorance and inexperience.
I was lucky my ass didn't come home broken and in a body cast.
Hindsight shows what folly could have resulted from my stubborness, but ALL the kids had scooters. These days isn't any different, but Martin you're right, we have decades worth of public knowledge about these hazards, and there is no excuse for parents today.
I think people should get all the facts before writing about something or someone. Not all accidents are for the same reason and not all people drive motorbikes the same way.The young man killed in the motorcycle accident did just get his bike lisences hours before the crash but did you know he was an experinced driver from the age 4 up on motor cross bikes then off road dirt bikes then finally his motorbike. The bike was NOT a gift from his parents he worked two jobs to buy that bike and was very proud of that fact. Speed was not a factor in the crash and to this day we have no idea what happened that day.He was in now way your typical out of control teenage boy, he was thoughtful, respectful and loving in everyway possible. So to sit there and judge him or us how dare you, hope you have trouble sleeping at night because I know I do over articles like these.His loving mother.
Dear Carolyn
Thank you for providing the facts that we did not have back in June, nor were provided by the CBC who wrote the original article.
I hope you have cleared up the inconsistencies with them (and there are many). As well, these are alarming inconsistencies.
It would appear that the reporter did not interview the family but relied on Mr. Gibbs (the witness) for the "facts".
As for people's opinions, people do make observations and maybe they don't apply to your son but there are others who are reckless and do take risks (no matter how great of a kid they are).
I'm truly sorry your son experienced bike trouble that day that resulted in the loss of his life.
Please accept my sincerest condolences.
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