By Patrick Tepoorten

Sunrise and sunset on County Road 19 have proven to be a dangerous time for area motorcyclists. Last September, Thomas Pearson, of Chisago City, was killed riding just after sunrise. Now, the sunset is being blamed for a crash that killed motorcyclist Daniel James Hase, 53, of Stacy, on May 9.

According to Lt. Steve Pouti, of the Chisago County Sheriff's Office, an unidentified tow truck driver was traveling westbound on CR-19 at around 7:15 p.m., and was attempting to take a left turn onto Lion Street.

Hase was traveling eastbound at the time, and struck the tow truck as it made the turn. Pouti stated that the tow truck driver said he never saw Hase coming up on the intersection.

Hase was pronounced dead at the scene.

Drugs or alcohol are not believed to be factors in the crash, and a reconstruction is being done by the State Patrol. But Pouti said it is likely the low sun will be determined to be a major contributing factor.

"I've seen a lot of accidents on County Road 19," said Pouti. "It's a bad area when the sun is coming up or going down."

Comment from Dan Banks, 5/28/07

I am disapointed in your article. It made no mention that the witness to the accident had no trouble seeing the motorcycle. The witness was traveling behind the tow truck.

Comment from chris salisbury, 5/28/07

sun up or sun down don't assume no one is there,it only takes another second to make sure...that's how i roll!!!!

Comment from Barbara Banks-Hase, 5/29/07

Perhaps if Patrick Tepoorten would have collected the accident report BEFORE reporting this story - and made a greater effort to interview more then one person's opinion of the actual event - then, this article content would be more factual and less dramatic (so typical of journalism tactics).

Comment from Kevin Wynn, 5/29/07

"Start Seeing Motorcyclists" is a long running safety campaign. The bumper stickers are everywhere. The campaign is necessary, and yet incredibly insufficient, to try to get drivers to recognize a small, single headlight as a rapidly approaching moving vehicle. Humans tend to register and react to approaching objects their brains are trained to see. The expectation of the driver is that a car/truck should be what they are going to see when check for approaching traffic. Unless they are truly looking, their eyes may see the motorcycle, but the brain does not register it because it's not what they were trained to look for.

Riders, and the family members of riders, recognize the motorcycle on the road because we are attuned to motorcycles because of our close association with bikes. Getting non-riders to see them takes awareness and training, actually thinking for a few seconds about what they are looking at on the road.

If you are a rider reading this, you'll understand immediately what I'm saying. If you don't ride, or don't personally know anyone does, please take that extra couple seconds to actually look, be aware, of what is on the road around you. You don't want to live with the memory of having taken another person's life through a moment of inattention. Where ever you were going, it wasn't so important that you couldn't have arrived thirty seconds later. Dan Hase is dead, not because of the setting sun, but because someone didn't really "look and see" before making turning his vehicle. No explanation or excuse will change the outcome. Dan's family and friends will deal with this for the rest of their lives. So will the driver who killed him, both personally and legally. Don;t let this be you, ever.

Start really "Seeing" motorcyclists. Please!

Comment from Jonathan Banks, 5/29/07

I have some mixed feelings on the article. Having described the sun as the only factor contributing to the death of an individual. If the sun was so intensely bright and the tow truck driver couldn't see the motorcyclist, how did the only eyewitness to the accident who was behind the tow truck see the motorcyclist? Seems as though yet again the press fails represent the truth.

Comment from Julie A. Wright, 5/31/07

Being that we live in Minnesota - our motorcycle riding season is much shorter than other southern and western states. Everyone should be aware that motorcycles are on the road and that you need to watch for them at all times! Whatever decision you make driving a car,truck, whatever can greatly affect a motorcyclist. The typical response of saying" I did not see him/her." just can't fly anymore. LOOK! I beleive this driver did see Dan and tried to "hurry" to beat Dan across the road and failed to do so and Dan reacted with his bike the only way he knew how and unfortunately was killed.
Sunglasses are made much better these days ~ was the driver wearing any? Sun visors also can assist a driver on bright days. I find this story hard to believe! I have driven that direction around that time of day and yes it is bright but I can still see.
When someone makes a left-hand turn it is a judgement call all the way - you must check to see if there is someone coming the other direction and you MUST time it correctly without causing an accident. This is where I think the tow truck driver is at fault.
Your article seems so -matter - of -fact.