Officer credits motorcycle with life
FONTANA: A man in a Honda rams a police officer but both he and his bike are unscathed.

12:15 AM PST on Wednesday, March 16, 2005

By ELENA ARNOLD / The Press-Enterprise

Riding to work along Interstate 10 on Tuesday morning, Fontana Police Officer Tony Cafaro found himself living every motorcycle officer's nightmare.
As he pulled alongside a speeding black Honda Accord, which he later would learn had been reported stolen, the driver turned the car towards Cafaro's department-issued BMW motorcycle.
"We're doing about 80 or so and he rams into the side of my bike," said Cafaro, 27. "He keeps ramming me, ramming me and we're getting closer and closer to the guardrail."
"The bike slid down the whole length of the car at a 45-degree angle," he said, describing the way the bike was leaning over. "I don't know how I didn't go down."
And while nothing in 20 years of motorcycle riding, including two years as a Fontana motor officer, could have prepared Cafaro for the ordeal, at least he was well equipped.
Cafaro credited his motorcycle with saving his life.
"Had I been on the Kawasaki I used to have, I know that I wouldn't be here," he said.
The department used a $450,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety last year to replace Cafaro's Kawasaki and other bikes in its aging fleet with four new BMW motorcycles, said Fontana police Sgt. William Megenney.
The grant also was used to fund other safety-oriented programs, he said.
Cafaro said he was most impressed with his new bike's braking capabilities -- especially when the Honda's driver tried to ram him a second time.
Cafaro pursued the car as it left the freeway at Sierra Avenue. The driver slowed and swerved toward Cafaro as the motorcycle pulled even with the car.
Cafaro hit the brakes.
"That thing stopped on a dime," he said.
He continued to follow the car through a mobile home complex, until the man abandoned the car and ran away.
Joseph Jesse James Frias, 20, of Bloomington was arrested a short time later on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, possession of stolen property and grand theft auto, said Megenney.
Cafaro said he had lower back and knee pain but was otherwise unhurt.
And the bike?
"There are only a couple of scratches and scrapes. BMW puts together a good machine."
- posted by BeemerMonkey @ 1:02 PM