Justin Dixon Killed in Pope County, AR, Motorcycle Accident
Pope County, AR -- February 20, 2017, Justin Dixon suffered fatal injuries due to an accident where his motorcycle crashed off the highway.
According to a preliminary police report, the accident happened around 2:25 p.m. outside of Hector.
The Arkansas State Police reported that 28-year-old Dixon was traveling southbound along Highway 27 on a 2010 Kawasaki. For reasons that have yet to be determined, the vehicle lost control on a curve and traveled off-road.
The motorcycle crashed into a mailbox on the side of the road and ejected Dixon. He and the vehicle eventually came to a stop in a nearby ditch.
Responding EMS officials pronounced Dixon dead at the scene. At this time, authorities have not said what factors contributed to the crash. Investigations are ongoing.
Map of the Area
Commentary
I'm quite certain that a lot of people are going to read about an accident like this and immediately assume that Mr. Dixon was driving dangerously, causing the accident. The typical assumptions tend to be the driver was speeding, not paying attention to the road, or intoxicated when the crash happened. It's not fair that people will jump to these conclusions despite not knowing all of the details. One of the reasons this happens is because people tend to have a negative bias against motorcyclists, which the article below delves into.
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What I want to talk about right now, though, is how single-vehicle accidents can happen. Like I said above, the typical assumption is that the driver was behaving recklessly and caused the accident. This may be common, but it's not the only thing that can cause a crash. For instance, one thing which many don't consider--and this often doesn't show up in preliminary police reports--is mechanical defect and failure. Sometimes, an inherent defect in the design or production of a part can cause a vehicle to lose control without any fault to the driver. This can be things like brake failure, faulty steering columns, defects which cause the engine to stall, etc.
The report states that Mr. Dixon was driving a 2010 Kawasaki, though it doesn't specify the model. I have found several reports of Kawasaki recalling certain models of motorcycles from that year with defects that could potentially cause a rider to lose control of their vehicle. Sometimes these recalls aren't always so obvious to consumers, and on top of that, sometimes the problem isn't discovered for some time, meaning drivers in danger without even knowing it.
I'll give you an example. GM faced controversy not long when a particular model of their vehicles had a faulty ignition switch. In short, this sometimes caused a vehicle to turn off mid-drive, and the defect directly caused around 100 fatalities. This problem wasn't discovered for years, and many of their customers were at risk without even knowing it. It's a miracle more people weren't affected by the accident, but 100 people still lost their lives.
I'm not saying that a mechanical defect caused Mr. Dixon's accident. What I'm saying is this is one possibility of many. People tend to jump to conclusions whenever they don't have all of the details, but this isn't fair to the victim or their family who was affected by the accident. The best thing to do when someone is hurt or killed in a crash is withhold judgements until all of the facts are clear. Only by knowing the complete picture can anyone know exactly what happened. Until then, people should avoid baseless generalizations.
--Grossman Law Offices
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