Teen Motocross Death In North Florida
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Students at Bartram Trail High School are mourning a senior who was killed this week in a motocross track accident in Flagler County, Florida.
Bennet “Ben” Gordon Geiger Jr. was just 17 years old. He had been riding motocross for two years and was on a practice ride at the Pax Trax Motocross in Bunnell Tuesday when his landed under his motorcycle after a jump. He was wearing a helmet. Geiger was airlifted to Flagler Hospital where he died. The medical examiner is conducting an autopsy.
There was a moment of silence for Geiger during the Friday night football game with Creekside High School.
The principal says the students are in shock.
“I think one of the main thing with students this age is because it’s so final, going to class you sit down in your desk and there is the empty desk your friends was the day before, and it’s just hard to deal with that.”
Big John Scott who had Ben in his Bible study and in his high school class, said online that Ben was “Quite possibly the funniest kid I ever met. Your friends are just ruined today.”
“Riding dirtbikes must have been his biggest love, I remember him talking about it all the time. At least he died doing what he loved best. “Only the good die young,” says Nina Alvarez online.
Ben's death is all too commonplace among riders. Concussions, broken backs, extremeties, and fractures frequently occur.
According to the CDC in a 2006 report, most people injured from off-road motorcycle riding among children and teens are male. More than 23,000 young people, under the age of 19, were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms for their injuries each year from 2001 to 2004. During that same period of time, 245 died. Most of the injuries were fractures to the head or extremities.
But sales are popular with thousands of racing events every year. The sport glamorizes dangerous moves that young riders feel pressure to imitate.
Matching ages and abilities on the track is one way to minimize dangers. Wearing protective clothing, high boots, helmets and gloves are recommended by the American Motorcycle Association. And making jumps more rounded is advised by one father who tried to make the sport safer for his son.
Nearly 300,000 off-road motorcycles were sold in the U.S. in 2003 alone, and that is nearly twice the sales figures for 1999. Our condolences to Ben's family and classmates.