Even the most well-trained and experienced riders...

[BobFV1]

Have lapses:

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/8959397/detail.html?subid=10101581

[Gord]

Interesting.

Did the lead officer downshift and not tap his brakes to let the followers know he was slowing? My instructor always advised that when using engine braking to be sure to tap the rear brake as a message to those behind.

Was the second officer following too closely? I have noticed a tendency for my Harley buddies to ride side by side at times or to be riding at almost 5 o'clock to the person in front of them when in a group. Both not recommended by my instructors.

Was the second officer distracted, looking out for potential threats to the motorcade? Motorcyclists are trained to avoid fixation on single objects and to develop scan patterns for collecting all the variable data they can on their surroundings. I think this gets drilled into our heads far better than with cage drivers. At least on my course the instructors put as much emphasis on watching our heads and eyes as they did our other riding techniques. So did the second officer forget this cardinal rule of survival?

Will be interesting to see if there is ever a published report on the cause of this accident.

[BobFV1]

Gord - Those are all good points. One thing we teach beginning riders is that no accident has a single cause. With experienced riders like this I would bet that complacency was one of the contributing factors, as well as the difficult and inherently dangerous activity of riding escort duty.