Motorcycle

Newport Beach police will be out in force Saturday looking for motorcycle riders breaking traffic laws. Throughout the day, extra officers will be on duty patrolling areas in the city frequented by motorcycle riders and where crashes commonly occur. The move is part of a ramped-up effort by police statewide to enforce motorcycle traffic laws. Motorcycle fatalities have been climbing for years before taking a dip in 2009, state numbers show. In 2000, there were 276 motorcycle fatalities in California.

Authorities have identified a 27-year-old man who was killed in a crash where the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway meets the San Diego (405) Freeway. Aaron Dobine of Laguna Niguel died at the intersection about 6:35 p.m. Monday after he lost control of the Harley-Davidson he was riding, according to the California Highway Patrol and Orange County coroner's office. As the motorcycle traveled at a high speed, it crashed into the concrete median wall and Dobine was thrown into an embankment, the CHP said.

CORONA DEL MAR - Those accustomed to traveling thousands of miles with the comforts of eyeshades, flight attendants and fluffy pillows may not understand the trip Patrick Di Giacomo is planning. But those with a sense of rugged adventure will. When the 56-year-old money manager says goodbye to Corona del Mar on Saturday, his only luxury for the two-month trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina - a journey of nearly 6,000 miles - will be the ash-colored leather seat of his BMW 1200 GS motorcycle.

A man reported to be a Costa Mesa resident died early Tuesday after crashing his motorcycle into a disabled vehicle in the carpool lane of the eastbound Foothill (I-210) Freeway in Azusa, Calif. William McKernan, 37, was driving his red 2001 Yamaha motorcycle at an unknown speed at approximately 5:20 a.m. when he collided with a gray Honda, which had crashed into the center divider about five minutes earlier, blocking the lane, said California Highway Patrol officer Edmund Zorrilla.

One suspect is in custody and another is at large after two men attempted to steal a motorcycle from a parking stall in the 1500 block of Mesa Verde East, Costa Mesa police said Wednesday. Luis Escobar, 23, of Huntington Park, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft of a motorcycle after he and another man allegedly tried to steal the bike from a residence. The bike’s owner woke up to the noise and alerted police. The men fled in a van without the bike, police said.

Greg Risling The Costa Mesa Police Department took home first place honors last weekend at a regional competition in San Bernardino for motorcycle officers. The department beat out a handful of teams for the team award. The officers representing the department demonstrated their superb riding skills to lay claim to the title. Officer Angelo Morgan was second in individual competition and Officers Mike Cohen, Bob Coash and Gerry Stukkie placed third in a separate rally.

A single exhibit at tonight’s art show at the Hurley warehouse in Costa Mesa says it all. It’s a surfboard with a set of 4-foot-tall motorcycle handlebars attached to the top of the deck and a fin on the bottom that’s made out of a saw blade. The board is accompanied by a wetsuit with a zipper in the front and a patch on the back, made to look like a classic Hells Angels denim jacket. It pretty well sums up the mixture of surf and motorcycle culture that makes up the life of Scotty Stopnik, the show’s curator.

People in Orange County and across the country on Saturday will honor the nearly 3,000 men and women killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In Santa Ana, county firefighters are going to remember fallen first responders, an Irvine beer festival event will donate part of its proceeds to a firefighter fund, and motorcycle enthusiasts will ride through the county in their memory via Coast Highway in Corona del Mar and Newport Beach. Costa Mesa firefighters will join others from Huntington Beach and the Orange County Fire Authority for a somber remembrance at 10 a.m. at Santa Ana's Civic Center, off Broadway and Civic Center Drive.

Authorities are investigating why a Mission Viejo man lost control of his motorcycle in a fatal accident on southbound East Coast Highway this weekend, police said Monday. Mario Frassetto, 34, died after his 2000 Yamaha motorcycle crashed at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday south of Reef Point Drive on East Coast Highway, CHP officer Denise Quesada said. Frassetto veered right and slammed into the metal guard rail, Quesada said. He was thrown off his motorcycle and hit the rail a second time, while his bike continued sliding south, she said.

Some regional police forces have grounded their motorcycle units as a precaution while the manhunt for an ex-Los Angeles Police Department officer suspected of targeting law enforcement personnel continues. But Newport-Mesa police departments said Thursday that they haven't seen the need to take such a measure. However, an Irvine police spokeswoman said her department is following the same protocols as the LAPD, mainly keeping officers off motorcycles so they are not as visible. Authorities said Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, a suspect in three murders, including two in Irvine, is targeting police officers in retaliation for being fired from the LAPD in 2009.

Kids waved and toddlers covered their ears as Santa rolled up in a red convertible escorted by about 20 Harleys. They pulled into the parking lot of Pretend City Children's Museum in Irvine as the final stop on their annual toy drive. They had just finished picking up thousands of gifts that will be distributed throughout 2013 to patients at Children's Hospital Orange County. Two-year-old Aiden Heiman pushed his wheelchair as close to the bikes as possible. "He loves motorcycles," his mother, Hodelia Hayat, said.

Authorities have identified a 27-year-old man who was killed in a crash where the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway meets the San Diego (405) Freeway. Aaron Dobine of Laguna Niguel died at the intersection about 6:35 p.m. Monday after he lost control of the Harley-Davidson he was riding, according to the California Highway Patrol and Orange County coroner's office. As the motorcycle traveled at a high speed, it crashed into the concrete median wall and Dobine was thrown into an embankment, the CHP said.

CORONA DEL MAR - Those accustomed to traveling thousands of miles with the comforts of eyeshades, flight attendants and fluffy pillows may not understand the trip Patrick Di Giacomo is planning. But those with a sense of rugged adventure will. When the 56-year-old money manager says goodbye to Corona del Mar on Saturday, his only luxury for the two-month trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina - a journey of nearly 6,000 miles - will be the ash-colored leather seat of his BMW 1200 GS motorcycle.

COSTA MESA - A Laguna Beach man suffered a serious head injury Friday night after his motorcycle collided head-on with an SUV on Superior Avenue, Costa Mesa police said. At about 9:50 p.m., Thomas Michael Skelly, 35, was riding his motorcycle southbound in the 1600 block of Superior Avenue when a girl in a 1997 Jeep Cherokee facing northbound on the street turned left in front of him, police said. Skelly collided head-on with the SUV and suffered brain trauma in the crash, authorities said.

COSTA MESA — The grand opening of a new EagleRider location will feature electric and three-wheel motorcycle test drives to benefit the Alzheimer's Assn., according to a news release. The new location at 217 Avocado St. is the second one in Costa Mesa and is operated by Newport Beach resident Russ Proctor. Visitors to the store from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday can test drive Zero and Trike motorcycles, participate in a poker tournament to win prizes and enjoy food and drinks.

People in Orange County and across the country on Saturday will honor the nearly 3,000 men and women killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In Santa Ana, county firefighters are going to remember fallen first responders, an Irvine beer festival event will donate part of its proceeds to a firefighter fund, and motorcycle enthusiasts will ride through the county in their memory via Coast Highway in Corona del Mar and Newport Beach. Costa Mesa firefighters will join others from Huntington Beach and the Orange County Fire Authority for a somber remembrance at 10 a.m. at Santa Ana's Civic Center, off Broadway and Civic Center Drive.

Newport Beach police will be out in force Saturday looking for motorcycle riders breaking traffic laws. Throughout the day, extra officers will be on duty patrolling areas in the city frequented by motorcycle riders and where crashes commonly occur. The move is part of a ramped-up effort by police statewide to enforce motorcycle traffic laws. Motorcycle fatalities have been climbing for years before taking a dip in 2009, state numbers show. In 2000, there were 276 motorcycle fatalities in California.

A 77-year-old driver collided with a Newport Beach Police motorcycle officer Monday, sending the officer to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with injuries to his leg and face, a police spokesman said. The officer, whose name was not released to the press, is not in a serious condition and is expected to recover, said Lt. Bill Hartford. The officer was eastbound on Ford Road about 11:15 a.m. when a white Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme struck his motorbike as the car's driver tried to turn left onto Newport Hills Drive West, Hartford said, adding that the impact pushed the officer off his bike.

If Costa Mesa streets seem like they?re being patrolled by police a little more heavily, that?s not your imagination. Thanks to a grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety, there are extra officers on patrol today enforcing motorcycle safety. Costa Mesa police will be patrolling areas frequented by motorcyclists and where crashes occur, officials said. Motorcycle fatalities have been on the rise in California the last decade. There were 204 motorcycle fatalities in 1998 and 560 last year, a 175% increase, police said.