2008tourgeorgiaaccident01

2008 TOUR DE GEORGIA

THE MOTO ACCIDENT

The start was uneventful at first and the riders left with their usual fanfare. The peloton mad a parade lap around the main part of the city and gave the fans another chance to see the riders. After the peloton moved through for second time, two fans that must not have known that their were still support vehicles on the course stepped under a rope barricade and right in front of an official Tour photographers motorcycle.

The driver of the bike seemed shaken but o.k. The pedestrians seemed to take the worst of the hit and the photographer, "J.P." had a pretty bad laceration to his arm. All persons involved were taken to a local hospital for treatment. One pedestrian suffered a broken leg and both were treated and released. I have second hand that the photographer needed some moderately serious attention to his elbow. That is unconfirmed at the moment.

After I shot the carnage and interviewed an eye witness, I fired up the cell phone and called my editor at the Gainesville Times to give him the short version. They have one of my photos on the front page of their website and will be running three of them in tomorrows daily paper. They will also be sharing the story with one of their affiliates in Forsyth County. I have two other N.E. Georgia newspapers shopping the story along with one local television station. I hate that my most used coverage of this years Tour has been an accident where people were hurt but that seems to be the theme of what is called news quite often.

TOUR VOLUNTEERS & EMERGENCY STAFF RESPOND