Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

Ronald Burris was the kind of lad you'd have been proud to call your son. His father, a schoolteacher in Colton, California, taught Ron to ride a motorbike when he was thirteen years old. Ron had a good mind. He quickly learned the responsibility that goes with motorcycle riding. His father taught him always to wear a helmet and to respect the rights of other people. "He was a good child," his mother told me. 'Ronnie had his helmet on when •.• it happened.' Mrs. Burris has not yet recovered from the shock and grief of losing her son, but she bravely, with voice breaking, related what she could of the incomprehensible tragedy. On Saturday, August 27, 1966 Ron and some friends had ridden out on their bikes to do some off-the-highway trailing. "He was always tinkering with his bike,' Mrs. Burris remembers. 'He was going to try it out' in the hills near his home. At the east end of Deberry st. there is a dirt path through an orange grove, lined by tall stands of Eucalyptus trees. Ron's friends said they had permission to use the private road to get to their riding grounds. As they reached the inviting dirt road they turned up the throttles, as kids will do, but Ron's bike trailed behind. Perhaps'it wasn't running well, or maybe he was taking it easy to let new parts wear in properly, at any rate Roo's friends were out of sight when they turned off the dirt road onto another trail. Ron missed the turnoff. That was his only crime. A few minutes Ialer, al 2:45 p.m. he was killed far 'trespassing' by a chain s1nllg across the road a quote Ihe san Bernardino Sun-Telegram) "to preveal cyclists from using the dirt lIa1b.· Later Mrs. Burris, her husband and Mr. Burris' brother visited the scene of the • accident" • impelled by the need to understand how this thing could have happened to their son, whom they knew was a skillful, safe, law-abiding rider. "We drove about five miles an hour, looking for the chain. We knew about where it was. but even then we almost touched it before we saw it.' I as led Mrs. Burris if she would describe the thing. "It was heavy iron chain all rust and brown the same color as the road and the trees and everything else. There is a row 0 Euc road. It was fastened to two of them.' yp us rees own ot S1 es 0 Mrs. Burris doesn'l recall seeing any sign of warning thallhe chain was th..e. But Mr. Burris' bnllher lied his white lIandkercllief to lIIe middle of the chain before lIIey weal away. If sameale bad dane thai sooner, Ran Burris migbl still lie alive. We leave to the bereaved family the decision whether to prosecute the persons responsible for installing the device that caused their son's death. "It wouldn't bring my son back,' Mrs. Burris has said. She doesn't believe that any of her neighbors would purposely set out a trap to kill children and we would like to believe she is right. But whether intentionally or by accident, a boy's life has been lost and I am angry because of it. Ronald Burris could have been anyone of us. It could be you or me next time. lying in the trail half-decapitated by a device so simple and so foolish and so innocent in the eyes of the law. I am angry because every legislative measure tbat is being enacted wbere motorcycle riders are concerned is purely restrictive while nothing is being done to save our necks. I, am angry because the chains. cables, wires and otber neck-breaking barricades that are planted in our paths are unable to "keep motorcycles out" in the first place. It is simple. if you survive the encounter, to lift the chain and go under. or ride around the attaching posts. I am angry because the Forestry Service, State, City and County parks departments string cabll'!s across trails up and down the nation without giving a thought to the hazard they create for cycle riders. And I am angry, most of all, because nothing is being done to prevent the the kind'of tragedy that struck Ron Burris from happening again. The outfil respaasible far Ihe dealb of Ran Blll'is is lamed Nalienal O ...ge Company. ------------ •

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