Shooot, the kinetics needed to rip a bike to pices like that.. Any idea how fast they were moving?

Is it verified that it was the German who was on the wrong side? Maybe the first guy in the British group pulled out, and the other followed in blind trust.

Sadly, the speed does not have to be that great. If we take as an example a 275kgs motorcycle moving at 80kmh in one direction and it collides head-on with a 275kgs bike and rider moving at 80kmh in the other direction, the impact force is already very high. (imagine hitting a wall at 160kmh on a motorcycle - Just the thought of it is very grim)

My thoughts go out to their families. A very tragic end.

Are you serious? A tragic event like this happens and you have related it to a person complaining on EF about the noise of a motorcycle? People died in this accident. I fail to see any connection at all to a post about motorcycle noise and a few cheeky words of banter.

Your first thoughts of such a terrible event seems to be severely messed up.

In your humble opinion.( but then of course you're weren't party to various PM's received and sent to various people involved )

very sad...awful...
one of the reasons why I do not ride bikes...and..with all the frustrated angry drivers in Switzerland and relatively narrow roads it does not get any better in CH.

Actually, it's the same as hitting a wall at 80kph.

Tom

OK. my comparison of 160kmh was wrong. However, an object hitting a stationary wall will have less damage than two moving objects in a head on collision. I know that the physics are exactly the same so there should be now difference between a wall or a head on with two objects. However, my rider instructor told me that a head on will be worse as the differences in bike design/weight will always mean that one bike will come off much worse than the other.

Yes, if they are not identical, the lighter one will always come out worse. And in the case of a car-bike collision, your 160 would actually be pretty close.

But I think that in this case, it wasn't exactly head on (which would be really hard with two bikes), probably more of a side-swipe, which is how all 8 managed to get taken out.

I sometimes ride with 40+ bikes, but when that many we are spread out over several km. We've been doing this for over 20 years, with only a couple accidents, and no fatalities or serious injuries (one or two broken legs). We did have an accident a couple years ago where a guy on a K1200RS panicked because he thought a car coming the other way was going to do a left in front of him, but it didn't, and he managed to lock up despite the ABS (I saw the skid marks), and lowsided in front of the car, bounced off the car, hit some other stuff, and broke in half. He walked away, but his passenger got a broken leg, and the two bikes behind him both went down because of the debris, riders unhurt, but one of the other bikes with major damage (the other ridable).

So, ALWAYS leave space! Multi-bike accidents are invariably the result of people riding too close together.

Tom

Apalling for the family and friends, they must be heartbroken.
The whole scenario is a nightmare for them.

The main reason I gave up the bikes was the eventual realisation that even a minor mistake on a bike can result in best case a wobble or missed heartbeat, worst case death or permanent disability. In a decent or modern car you're pretty much assured to be walking wounded or better by comparison.

Id just like to say im sorry to hear about this terrible accident and all my love and thoughts go to those affected. Now, the story is that 8 biker friends from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England were on a trip around Europe to celebrate two of the british friends birthdays. When they came to a dual carridge way near Splügen in canton Graubünden zurich (one of those places lol) that is where they had the crash. 5 of the british who was in front pulled over down the road and waited for the other 3 to catch up, 3 or 4 of the british bikers me qnd my dad knows. Now one of the people we know phoned and said they pulled over whilst waiting for the 3 to catch up, now iv been told two things -1. they pulled over and someone passing said if your with them bikers id get back down there because theyve had a crash. -2. They pulled ober and one of the bikers saw a ball of fire in his mirror. I dont know which is true, now after they heard or saw there was a crash they raced back and saw a devistating sight. 2 of the british was killed instantly, both of which i know, and the other who had the green bike is my best mates father, he got airlifted to hospital aswell as the german biker. The british surviver who had the green bike is coming around and doing well, he suffers from a fractured foot, a knacked up pelvis, his arm is in a brace and pinned and cracked a bone under his eye at side of his nose. He spent 6 hours in theatre for his pelvis.
Again, sorry to here about this wonderful trip turning bad. All my love Andy. xxx

Sorry for your friends.

So, from this, it seems that the news reports of 9 bikes being involved, only 4 were, which makes much more sense, and the nine came about because that's how many were at the scene when the rescuers arrived (as the other five had returned).

Thanks for shedding some more light on this tragedy.

Tom

Yes Tom!!! The news need to get thier facts right before they say anything!!! Andy.

I knew the 15 year old boy from Steinen who was killed in a moped accident personally. Really nice kid and family. My own children are trying to cope with the loss. My daughter says it was meant to be. I replied it was terrible bad luck.

It's been a bad week for accidents.

My condolescenses to all who have been affected and are grieving.