RIP -Orange County Deputy Matt Long

[RICO]

Just heard it on the news. An off duty deputy riding on the interstate did not see a construction truck and ran into the back of it, He did not make it. From the picture it looked like a sportbike. They did not release a name, pending notification of his family.

R.I.P.

[DeltaNu1142]

Best wishes to his family, friends & dept.

[MianoSM]

Didn't see a construction truck? Interesting.

Hope he rests in peace.

[busagirl]

R.i.p.

[CBR600hottie]

R.I.P ..prayers sent to family, and friends.

[Big E]

R.i.p.

[Gibby]

RIP sucks to hear that, and its a cop

[WayKewl]

Rip............

[Vixxen]

RIP, prayers sent to his family and friends

[vrod]

Off-Duty Deputy Loses Life In Motorcycle Accident

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. --
Around 2:00am Wednesday a fatal motorcycle accident on I-4 westbound at Sand Lake Road took the life of an Orange County sheriff’s deputy. Sheriff Kevin Beary told Channel Nine the victim is an off-duty deputy.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary was one of the first to arrive on scene where one of his deputies lost his life. The off-duty deputy was on his personal motorcycle headed westbound on I-4 when he approached a construction crew working on the roadway.

His motorcycle struck the attenuator truck and he died instantly, investigators said. A tractor trailer was also involved in the accident.

The Florida Highway Patrol is handling the investigation. Troopers said it's too soon to determine if excessive speed played a role in the crash. They did say that the motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet.

The sheriff's office hasn't released the name of the victim. They did say that he had been with the agency for several years assigned to the tourist corridor.



Attached is a picture of the attenuator truck taken from a news site. Now these attenuator trucks are pretty well lit for the most part if they were operating properly. The report indicated that a semi tractor trailer was also involved and I wonder if the riders view of the attenuator truck was blocked by the semi and when he passed the semi switched lanes an ran into the rear of the slow moving attenuator truck in the right lane.

RIP

[636rider]

:cops: Off-Duty Deputy Loses Life In Motorcycle Accident

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Around 2:00am Wednesday a fatal motorcycle accident on I-4 westbound at Sand Lake Road took the life of an Orange County sheriff’s deputy. Sheriff Kevin Beary told Channel Nine the victim is an off-duty deputy.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary was one of the first to arrive on scene where one of his deputies lost his life. The off-duty deputy was on his personal motorcycle headed westbound on I-4 when he approached a construction crew working on the roadway.

His motorcycle struck the attenuator truck and he died instantly, investigators said. A tractor trailer was also involved in the accident.

The Florida Highway Patrol is handling the investigation. Troopers said it's too soon to determine if excessive speed played a role in the crash. They did say that the motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet.

The sheriff's office hasn't released the name of the victim. They did say that he had been with the agency for several years assigned to the tourist corridor.

Copyright 2007 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Azazel]

Sad...



Rico posted this about three hours ago
http://www.tampasportbikes.com/forum/showthread.php?p=156775#post156775

[Azazel]

Rip

[R1GUN]

R.I.P. and prayers to family and friends

[Evt2718]

R.I.P officer

[sixxer]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-deputy1807jan18,0,2518719.story?track=mostemailedl ink

Fatal question: why was deputy going so fast?
Orange Deputy Matt Long joins the growing list of motorcycle fatalities.

Orange County deputy dies in motorcycle crash
Jan 17, 2007

The motorcycling death of an Orange County deputy demonstrated early Wednesday what authorities say is the fatal attraction ultra-fast sport bikes hold over older as well as younger riders.

How fast 39-year-old Matt Long was going when his Kawasaki Ninja disintegrated on Interstate 4 awaits a crash reconstruction.

The wreckage, though, suggests blistering speed.

"It's not just kids running fast anymore. It's a wide spectrum now," Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Jorge Delahoz said, looking at shattered pieces of the bike, some of which were smaller than playing cards. "It's a macho thing, I guess."

Sport bikes capable of going at least 150 mph were involved in the majority of motorcycle deaths last year in Orange County, including 17 of the 22 investigated by FHP troopers, records show.

In Central Florida, the race-ready bikes became linked to disproportionate numbers of deaths in the 1980s.

Many of those involved sailors attending a nuclear-power school in Orlando at the former Naval Training Center, now Baldwin Park.

"Honestly, it was worse when we had the Navy guys here," said Delahoz, who became a trooper in 1987 in Orlando.

On Wednesday, Long was off duty and riding without a helmet at 2 a.m. when he struck the rear of a slow-moving, brightly illuminated safety truck.

Visible for at least a quarter-mile, the westbound truck near Sand Lake Road was protecting a road crew replacing lane-marker reflectors. Other motorists who claimed they had been driving about 60 mph just before the crash told troopers the motorcycle passed them "at a high rate of speed."

The impact threw Long's body about 200 feet, reports show.

Hours later, Sheriff Kevin Beary spoke about the death and called Long "a quality cop."

Beary noted that Long served as a sniper in the Marine Corps before joining the Flagler County Sheriff's Office in the late 1990s. Two years ago, Long transferred to Orange County and hoped to join the agency's motorcycle unit.

"It's a tragedy anytime you lose a police officer," the sheriff said.

An auto mechanic before he became a deputy in 1998, Long outfitted his motorcycle with a Dynojet Power Commander computer to boost the 178-horsepower, 1,199 cubic-centimeter engine by as much as 10 percent, according to interviews.

The remains of the bike were impounded at a towing storage yard in Winter Garden until FHP traffic-homicide investigators try to download speed information from the onboard computer.

"Hell of a license plate," tow-truck operator Brad Conner commented on seeing Long's vanity tag -- "BULLIT" -- in the pile of wreckage in The Car Store's fenced lot.

A Kawasaki Ninja owner himself, Conner said Long's souped-up sport bike would have been capable of 200 mph.

"We've been getting more of them than ever before. At least one a day," said Conner, whose company is on a rotating list of 16 towers in the county. "Most of them are guys from 18 to the mid-20s."

Florida is among the last two states not requiring motorcycles to be insured. Teens and young adults faced with paying more than $2,000 a year for car insurance can ride an exhilaratingly fast bike insurance-free.

Yet, riding instructors say, sport bikes are the most demanding type of motorcycle to master.

"The implement itself is not the danger; it is the training and experience of the person who's going to use it," said Frank Kinsey, founder of Frank Kinsey Racing School in Brevard County.

"I make my living coaching people how to ride them on the race track at the edge of the laws of chemistry and physics. If you try to do that on the street, something bad is going to happen to you eventually."

[skip]

dude......WTF was he thinkin???

[Azazel]

"The implement itself is not the danger; it is the training and experience of the person who's going to use it," said Frank Kinsey, founder of Frank Kinsey Racing School in Brevard County.

Nice....

[defkon]

I hate to go off topic here but is this true?

"Florida is among the last two states not requiring motorcycles to be insured."

I didn't know you didn't need insurance in Florida.
Forgive my ignorance, but I haven't been in FL that long.
Why wouldn't you want insurance?

[Tarbaby]

RIP Matt Long.
Prayers to his family and friends.





Especially since he is a LEO, why wouldn't he have known about the construction zone? The lid is a personal choice that he was entitled to but I'm surprised the media didn't jump all over that fact like they usually do.
Maybe he had a mechanical issue and couldn't slow her down? Stating the obvious here, but it wasn't the high rate of speed that caused the bike to shatter, it was the sudden impact.

[JP Whoregan Financial]

If he was going as fast as they think he was going, I don't think a helmet would have done a damn thing...his body was chucked 2/3rds of a football field for Godsake....

[liquid_iq]

motorcycles have not, for as long as i can remember, been required to carry any kind of insurance in florida. however, the bank may require you to have insurance to protect their collateral for a loan.

i can't help but think that riding triple digits at night without a helmet didn't somehow make it more difficult to see. my eyes get watery with sunglasses at 45.

wow, a quote from kinsey. dead on too. kind of like "guns don't kill people".

[Steve]

Sad story. I have hope all will take a little wisdom from this.

[JennJenn]

RIP
tragic

[SideShow]

rip brother. prayers sent

[JC636]

I hate to go off topic here but is this true?

"Florida is among the last two states not requiring motorcycles to be insured."

I didn't know you didn't need insurance in Florida.
Forgive my ignorance, but I haven't been in FL that long.
Why wouldn't you want insurance?
some people really dont have the money to spend on insurance. insurance companies want an arm and a leg to insure some people because they are so young or they have bad driving records

[RICO]

R.I.P. Very tragic

[roro]

R.I.P so sad

[vrod]

I wonder if there were other issues. Waiting for the BAC results to see. Sorry I brought this up but it's a question that must be answered. In fact, this crash has a number of questions to answer but still shows no matter who we are, we still remain human.

RIP Bullit.

[Big E]

RIP

Why do they have to blame it on the NAVY?

[Wicked1]

suicide.