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NORWALK, Conn. – A Norwalk motorcyclist who died Thursday after a collision with a car had owned his bike for only minutes, according to Norwalk Town Clerk Rick McQuaid. Michael Miller, 29, of Glendenning Street, had just left the Department of Motor Vehicles after registering the motorcycle.
Miller's 2007 Kawasaki motorcycle hit a 2008 Suburu driven by an 18-year-old Wilton woman just up the road, according to Sgt. James Boff. The collision happened at about 3:30 p.m. in front of Town Fair Tire at 580 Main Ave. An off-duty Greenwich police officer performed CPR on Miller until Norwalk paramedics arrived to take over, but Miller was pronounced dead at Norwalk Hospital later that afternoon.
McQuaid said he is close friends with the man who sold Miller the motorcycle and said he is "devastated" by the news. The man met Miller at the DMV to walk him through the process of registering the bike and showed Miller the ropes of using what was his first motorcycle. Miller didn't have a helmet. The man loaned him one and told him to always wear a helmet.
The man who sold the motorcycle exited the DMV and turned left on Main Avenue. Miller turned right and the collision happened minutes later.
Police seized the helmet as evidence, Boff said.
"It's a tragedy," McQuaid said.
Comments (10)
Just Looking
The police are not likely to go after the helmet owner, but lawyers may find some fault with the helmet and sue the manufacturer if it fails to offer adequate protection because of poor design or failures of material or workmanship. The police taking the helmet and documenting it was worn in the accident could be an essential part of such a suit.
There are a lot of factors to look at and only the police are in a position to collect evidence and document what happened. Lawsuits, later, sometimes take surprising courses.
The owner of the helmet apparently had good intentions, but allowing an inexperienced (?) rider ride a new (to him), and his first, motorcycle home from the MVD may have been poor judgement that could cost him. At some point, lawyers for Miller's family may be looking everywhere for anything they can get.
Old Timer
I agree with you 100% - the Norwalk PD are a dedicated group who as a general rule work hard and behave professionally, often in the face of difficult odds and uncooperative victims.
Tim T regularly reads articles and uses the comments section to accuse the police of misconduct or a lack of diligence, when he has no proof. For some reason he wants to trash the Norwalk PD at every opportunity, which is his right if that's what he wants to do, but he should base his criticism on things that actually happened.
Instead Tim T simply makes things up and repeats them ad nauseum, including the obviously false claim that shootings and killings go 100% unsolved in Norwalk. A forum such as this is intended for public discourse, it's too bad he chooses to dirty it with slander and insults.
Just Looking & Tim T
What are you talking about ? The police took the helmet as evidence and they probably also took both vehicles. A Police investigation of a mv accident is focused on who broke mv laws to cause the accident and file charges against that person. Parts of that investigation may later be ujsed in civil suits against the person or persons responsible. The injured parties and their lawyers decide who gets sued, not the police.
Tim T
I don't know what your personal problem with the Norwalk Police is, and I won't speculate, but you need to get your facts straight. They solve a lot of cases, not as many as you, and they, would like, but a lot. If there is a case they didn't solve that you think they could, and should have, you certainly have reason to complain, but saying all the shootings and killings are 100 percent unsolved is just wrong and makes you sound uninformed or dishonest. We all know there are too many cases unsolved where victims and witnesses will not talk to police, and some where local police do not have the resources for quick solutions. Unlike TV, local police sometimes wait a year for DNA tests.
just_looking
You make a godo point..Lets hope the NPD is not trying to make a name for themselves on this one. It's a shame they are not so diligent in catching the ones doing all the shooting and killings in Norwalk as those crimes are 100 percent unsolved.
The first story made it clear the car made a left turn across the northbound lane and cut in front of the motorcycle. Under the circumstances, it is doubtful if a well trained motorcycle operator could have avoided a bad accident. We don't know the speed of either vehicle, but that kind of crash is awful hard to avoid when the vehicles are too close when the turn is made.
Not taking anything from the available training courses, even if he had been driving a car or truck, avoiding that crash is almost impossible. Surviving such a crash is more likely with a car surrounding you. Motorcyles can be fun, but sharing the road with much bigger vehicles making bad mistakes is inherently dangerous.
My condolences to the friends and family of the deceased.
Don't know all the facts of what happened here, but broadly speaking, accidents such as this are the reason I got rid of my motorcycle. I did complete the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Learn To Ride course which wreckdive mentioned below. The course is excellent and teaches the safest way to ride - anyone who rides would benefit, regardless of the number of years they have been riding. The course even teaches safe ways to take evasive action, but even so, from my personal experience there are still plenty of bad moves that inattentive or unthinking drivers can make which leave you no opportunity for safe evasive action.
Tragic, and avoidable. The overwhelming majority of motorcycle accidents happen to riders who have been riding for less than 6 months. Having a "friend" show you how the controls work in a DMV parking lot is NO substitute for a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Learn To Ride course. Operating a motorcycle safely requires specific skills best gained through lots of practice in controlled conditions.
This is a terrible, terrible story, my heart goes out to everyone involved. Totally avoidable.
RIP - Michael Miller. Another sad loss of a young life.
I am concerned with the line "Police seized the helmet as evidence, Boff said".
I hope that no one is going to try to point to the person who loaned the helmet to someone who was not going to use one.
such a tragedy. I hate to hear news such as this. Rest in peace.....