The Press: The Wild Motorcycle

On assignment at the annual Farm Festival parade in tiny (pop. 2,319) Fairmont, N.C. last week, Raleigh News & Observer Photographer Thomas Inman expected to get nothing but routine pictures. He watched along with several hundred others as two Shriners, decked out in fezzes, rode their motorcycle and sidecar up to the reviewing stand. They parked, left the engine idling, and stepped out to greet those in the stand. Suddenly, in the midst of the lighthearted festivities, their riderless motorcycle started up and ran wildly along the street until it plunged into the crowd on the curb. As it did, Photographer Inman snapped a remarkable picture (see cut). Total injured (none fatally): six.