Typical. Rider riding way over his head crashes. The CHP come in for some selective enforcement and hold everyone to the letter of the law and hopefully discourage them from ever going back up there. Its the one idiot who ruins it for the rest of us. Likely some squid showing off. HD people crash up there too, mostly due to innattention and possibly "impairment". They cruise along at safe enough speeds most of the time but are drawn away from the road by the beautiful scenery. There are about 4 spots that can grab you, but if you know where those spots are then no problem. The first is the other side of the dam, near the end of the dam on the east side. The roadway takes a little jog so if your not paying attention you can find yourself heading for the guard rail. At that point of recognition most riders react by grabing a handful of front brake, toast. Quite a few accidents there, looks tame and is tame if your paying attention. Just pass the end of the dam the roadway takes a left to right uphill sweep. The turn is tighter than what it appears as you near the end of the dam. All of a sudden you find yourself drifting left as the roadway is dissappearing and your crossing the double yellow. The end of the dam draws people in to start accelerating because it is the official start of the "run" on Wentworth Springs Rd. I see that turn as an off camber uphill. Just go a little slower as you exit the dam and every thing is good. There are others up there, but its just like any other road really, just alot smoother without a bunch of tight turns. One last popular crashing spot, we call it the "culvert" or the "granite boulders". There are a number of granite boulder culverts up there, but this particular one has claimed a number of riders. I recall in a span of two weeks three riders crashed there, two of them hard. Apparently the roadway makes people enter a downhill S turn whereby they get out of whack and target fixate on the boulders. The second crasher is buddy of mine, slower rider not that confident on the bike. He used to ride in the back and stayed there, not the big ego rider. However, this time he apparently tried to play "catch up" and got caught in the above trap and crashed hard on the boulders.
He was airlifted out with a broken back in a couple places and a badly broken wrist. The first guy was on a Harley or such and the buddy I just mentioned witnessed this guy crash into the boulders in front of him. Talk about a self fulfilling prophecy. The cruiser just left the road and the rider was super lucky because he crashed hard right into the boulders and his funky nazi helmet took the hit, not the side of his face or neck or anything. When I got there he was laying in the creek water and wallowing around trying to move himself out of there. No one wanted to physically drag him out due to liability, but we made sure he didn't drown. He was shaken up, but I don't think he had any serious injuries, but you never know. Many people, including myself thought they were OK but didn't realize they were bleeding out The last guy was on a sportbike in our group. For some reason he left the road at the same culvert and based on his tire tracks, he lucked out because he missed the boulders by less than a foot. His bike went down in the soft shoulder and he fell onto soft dirt. For the longest time he more or less laid there and was quiet. He was consious and all that but reluctant to talk. I left the scene and found out later a CHP helicopter transported him because there were no medi vac choppers available. He was lucky there because the CHP chopper apparently was a free ride whereas the others are at least $10K and more. The dude got transported to Sutter Roseville and upon landing he got off the gurney and walked away. Completely unhurt and it was our opinion from those that were there his at scene behavior was simply a sympathy act. I couldn't believe it, what a nimrod.He showed up a couple months later at a coffee meet up on a new bike, people there heard the story and shined him on.
I always keep an eye on bikes going the oppisite direction. They will often give the "tap helmet" signal as a courtesy.