Membership
Riders Preferred Membership
Shop by Vehicle
Track Order
Contact Us
I recently wrote about reports from around the country of increased incidents of extreme speeding on emptier roads during the COVID-19 outbreak, including two motorcyclists clocked at 170 mph plus, but video has been released of another incident that tops that: An airman stationed at a base in Oklahoma was accused of reaching 183 mph on I-35.
According to a report in the Air Force Times, 24-year-old Senior Airman Michael Alexander Workman, who was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base, was riding with two others when Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Walter Jack clocked them at 80 mph in a 70 mph speed zone on April 25. Instead of stopping, two of the three took off.
During the eight-mile chase, radar reported speeds up to 183 mph.
According to the Air Force Times, the civilian authorities dropped the charges and turned Workman over to the military for prosecution.
When I see numbers like 183 mph on a radar gun pointed at a motorcycle on the street, I always wonder about the accuracy. Achieving that kind of speed on even the fastest street motorcycle is not easy. Of course the bigger point is that the precise speed doesn't much matter, when you're dealing with the dangers inherent in 100 mph closing speeds with regular traffic unaware of what's coming up behind them.
If we continue "getting back to normal" and have to return to dealing with more typical levels of traffic on the highways, maybe the upside will be that we see fewer extreme speeding videos.
