I cannot fathom how strikingly violent some people's inclinations are.
That they would willingly and so heartlessly set positively deadly wire traps for people they don't even know, aimed at taking their heads clean off, just because they don't like motorcyclists or motorcycles, snowmobilers, or ATVers. Yet, that's the society and world we live in. Where these traps are all-too common. Where riders are seriously injured or killed.
Luckily, the latest person to be seriously injured walked away from the incident, though based on his gruesome Instagram post, it could've been a very different outcome had he moved his head either left or right or kept his chin up.
Seriously, he's lucky he's not dead.
The post comes from professional rider and SuperEnduro champion Taddy Blazusiak. According to the post, Blazusiak was out riding a trail, heading toward the area he wished to ride through when he hit the wire trap.
"So here’s what happened to me," he starts, adding, "riding a trail on the way to my riding spot on Monday 11.11 I caught a wire that someone intentionally hung across the trail. Thankfully somehow I caught it in an angle coming out of a corner so I took it on my right shoulder and between my helmet chin piece and goggles, if that wire would slip down from the chin piece on to my neck most probably I wouldn’t be writing this post." Again, he's lucky he's alive.
And while the laceration is ugly, Blazusiak stated, "All good here I got stitched up by a plastic surgen so hoping my face muscles and the scar are going to be OK. I just cant stop thinking of, what if I would caught it straight on my neck…"
Now, I'm glad he's OK, but his post came with an outpouring from the rest of the dirt riding industry with riders offering up similar tales of these wire traps. "I hit a barbed wire booby trap at clear creek one year," says one. Another offered " I have experienced it once too, back in 2012 while making lap time in a the forest of a private huge property in France, by chance the angle of the sun made it shining a bit that made me able to see it, brake and avoid it…" Another stated, "There are plenty of cases from Spain, Italy, etc. about real deaths because of wires over the trail." While another commenter said, " Had the same thing happen here in NC, a friend and I rode all day at a local spot, my older brother went the day after and encountered steel wire hung at neck height. He said lucky he wasn’t going fast and seen it."
Taddy's wire trap comes only a few short months after RideApart covered a similar situation in Colorado where an unknown perpetrator set multiple traps with the apparent aim to kill or injure riders. As of this writing, no suspect has been identified and no one arrested.
It's, honestly, infuriating. We're all enjoying the outdoors. Dirt bikers and ATVers and snowmobilers and hikers and campers and hunters. The fact that we can't all play nicely, let alone just not try and kill each other, is saddening beyond belief.
To the people who do this, I hope you get caught and get the book thrown at you.
