Picture Perfect Cop
2003 Honorable Mention
Confirmed True by Darwin
(7 August 2003, Wyoming) Like a true country child, Jim was born, born to
be wild... even though he had grown up to be a county sheriff. The wild
one had cast off his mild-mannered alter-ego and taken to the road, in the
company of another cop and the cop's brother, riding his hog without a
helmet to the big motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. The tough
lawman scoffed at silly helmet laws.
Confirmed True by Darwin
No road trip would be complete without a commemorative photograph. With the wind streaming through his hair at 65 mph, Jim decided the conditions were right. He took his camera and turned around to take a picture of the rider behind him. This of course required the bold Harley rider to take his hands off the handlebars.
As a state trooper described it later, the motorcycle drifted to the right and headed for a telephone pole. Jim lost control trying to wrestle the bike back onto the highway and went sailing through the air, probably wishing he had worn his helmet after all. When he landed, he broke his eye socket, four ribs, and a shoulder bone, and suffered other head injuries and road rash. There's no word on whether he got the photograph or not.
Jim had been following a beloved motto: "No Helmets 4 Harleys." Although he miraculously survived, he nearly proved another: "Old riders, and bold riders, but no old bold riders!"