If you're anywhere near the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area in the summer months, then you already know the city is famous for having a million festivals at once. Obviously, Harley Homecoming is a major draw, in a city that's just about as proud as it's possible to be of its own homegrown, 121-year-old motorcycle company.
But although it's a major festival, it's not the only festival. In fact, it's not even the only festival that took place this last weekend. German Fest also lit up the Milwaukee waterfront with a massive fireworks display as a friend and I left the Harley Homecoming concert at Veteran's Park on Saturday evening. The city's 2024 Bastille Days festival already took place earlier in July, but has overlapped with the Harley festival in the past.
In other words, it's even busier than usual out. You've got locals just going where they want and need to go in their city, and then you've got hapless visitors who aren't quite sure where they're going (like me). As someone who lives in Chicago, I'm no stranger to riding up into Wisconsin (and Milwaukee), but I still don't have the knowledge that locals do because I've never lived there.
Over the course of the last weekend, though, I heard from multiple locals about how bad reckless driving has gotten in recent time. And while folks can't seem to agree on exactly when it got so bad, they all agree that it's not great.
I saw some crazy near-misses while I was there this time, and the vehicular insanity seemed to ramp up after the sun went down. It's no great surprise if you've ever lived in any city, honestly, but it still can't help but make you at least a little nervous if you ride.
And although I didn't know it at the time, it turns out that one rider had already lost his life in a hit-and-run earlier in the evening, not far away from the Harley-Davidson Museum where some of the Homecoming festivities were taking place.
A quick look at the map shows you that it's just a few blocks away. While we don't have attendance numbers for this year yet, I can tell you there were quite a few motorcycles all over the neighborhood and downtown Milwaukee in general this weekend (and no, not all of them were Harleys).
It's not yet clear whether the rider had attended the festival, which local news stations seem particularly interested in connecting because they do like a nice, pretty little bow.
But as a rider, I have to ask if that part even really even matters.
See, regardless of why that rider was out, the fact is that a 31-year-old rider was riding their bike, and then they got plowed into by two teenagers in a stolen silver Hyundai. And it was the last ride they ever took.
The news footage of the crime scene included in the video above doesn't tell us how fast the car was going, but it's clear it was a pretty hard hit from all the debris strewn across the intersection, as well as the Hyundai's missing front bumper cover.
Witnesses said a local resident tried to administer CPR for about five minutes before EMTs showed up to tend to the rider. Although the video didn't have this information at the time, later local news stories revealed that the rider died of their injuries after being transported to a local hospital.
It's a sad reminder that you and I and every other rider can take every possible precaution, and yet we can still be in the wrong place at the wrong time and another driver's carelessness (or even outright malice) can change our lives forever. Or end them.
Keep your eyes open and ride as safe as you can out there. Please.
