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Mass Motorcycle Accident On I-75 in North Central Florida
by WCJB Producer · Nov 20th 2009 · See more Local News


One man was killed and another critically injured after a group of motorcycles wiped out on I-75 at the exit for state road 326. State troopers say a saddlebag fell off of the first of several motorcycles riding in a caravan.

A number of the trailing motorcycles hit the bag ... throwing several of the riders off of their bikes. FHP Troopers say Gennero Dilauri of Merritt Island was one of them and was later pronounced dead at Munroe Regional Medical Center. Jack Helton of Longwood was taken to Shands in Gainesville in critical condition.

Now it makes perfect sense!

I always wondered why anyone would have studs and spikes on a saddlebag.

The bags on my buddies Road King has quick release pins. They seemed like a good idea to me, but I bet this was the cause of the accident.

I don't like the idea of quick release anything on a vehicle.

Crap. That's pretty scary. I like that you have to have a key to get the easy brackets with saddlebags off your bike. I wonder if speed or distance between riders were an issue.

The easy brackets on my Harley bags tried to kill me back in '05 or '06. Easy brackets are safe now, AFAIK, but back then I had an older version with less secure locks.

This is sad to hear. I've been considering an easy bracket-like product, but wonder if there can be issues with these. I suppose if the design of these quick release brackets were faulty, we would be hearing about it...

That really blows. web page

I don't think the person WITH the saddlebags was hurt, it was OTHERS behind.


So the lesson to be learned is, DO NOT RIDE WITH OTHERS IF THEY HAVE BAGS!

That's very sad ... but :

"Neither Dilauri nor Helton were wearing helmets, the FHP said."

Here in France helmets are obligatory.
I don't know if that could save them in this case , but I know that helmet will be safer than nothing on my head if I fall down .

EZ brackets won't come off. Trust me, I mounted the hardware so tight that even when they are unlocked I can't get them off. (I still have some adjusting to do.)

One time I was riding with a group and one of the guys had a raggity old HD bagger and the top latch was broken and the lid keep flying open. Some one had a bungy for him to the lid closed for the rest of the ride.

Thanks George for the comment on EZ Brackets. As Tfrenchy notes, it looks like the fact that the two were not wearing helmets was a factor in the extent of their injuries.

1+ on the EZ Brackets. No way are they going to "fall off". A very good investment, worth paying more for them, than for the bags you would use them with.

Correction. The current style of EasyBrackets shouldn't come off, but that wasn't always the case. If you "inherit" EB's from 5 or more years ago, bad things can happen.

It's up to you to make sure the brackets are all the way on the posts and the lock is all the way underneath the tip of the post. The old design allowed you to pull the key out without the lock being fully engaged. They were great about replacing the locks with the new style for free, but it was left to me to fix my bag.