Motorcyclist Didn’t Remember Hitting a Car, Police Say

On Tuesday an Olmsted County, Minnesota Sheriff's Deputy saw a vehicle parked on the side of the road with its flashers on and stopped to investigate. The driver said she was driving south on the 4300 block of 50th Ave. SE in Marion Township when a motorcyclist rear-ended her. KROC AM News reports that she told the Deputy she was driving about 50 miles per hour at the time of the crash. She also reported a sore neck and headache from the crash.

The Deputy found the motorcycle nearby, but there was no sign of the rider. About 30 minutes later the rider, Nicholas Hanson, called the police himself to report an accident. He said he didn't remember hitting a car and thought he had slipped on some gravel instead.

Police determined that Hanson was under the influence of a controlled substance, and arrested him after he failed a field sobriety test. He faces possible fourth-degree driving while intoxicated and criminal vehicular operation charges pending the test results of a urine sample.

Consider some of these facts. The motorist was traveling 50 mph. The motorcycle rear-ended her, meaning that it was traveling more than 50 mph. It hit her hard enough to cause neck and head pain, indicating that there was a good deal of force involved in the crash. A motorcycle weighs only a fraction as much as a car. Force equals mass times acceleration, therefore with significantly less mass, there had to be significantly more acceleration to deliver that much force. In other words, the laws of physics indicate that the bike had to be going extremely fast.

Yet Hanson appeared to walk, or at least stumble, away from the crash. Police did not report what condition Hanson or his riding gear (or lack thereof) was in, other than intoxicated. Yet that may explain why Hanson was still standing and relatively coherent after such a crash, as well as why he didn't remember it.