Busted! Motorcyclist Caught Speeding By Police Aircraft

Sportbike rider sentenced to three years of probation.

If you haven't seen this bit of San Francisco-area news, here it is, the story of a rider doing 120 mph on his Kawasaki sportbike on a freeway, caught by gyro-stabilized camera in a fixed-wind California Highway Patrol aircraft.

When asked why he did it, the guy in question, Corey McDonah, said, “The bike is stupid fast. I’m not saying I couldn’t help myself, but, you know, you buy a bike for a certain reason. Sometimes, it gets you in trouble.”

Ah, the blame-the-bike approach. Actually, this has traction with lawmakers; you might recall Senator John Danforth’s attempt to get sportbikes off the road back nearly 30 years ago with the “Motorcycle Safety Act of 1987.” Maybe there will be no backlash from the safety-crat lobby (chiefly the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) but maybe there will be.

Interesting to think what would have happened if he’d been doing 190, eh?