Did Lane Splitting Lead To The Death Of A Navy Veteran At The Hands Of A Woman Who Also Allegedly Framed A Rapper For Kidnapping?

California is reportedly about to make lane splitting by motorcyclists legal. Currently, it’s simply not illegal, which is not the same as explicitly legal. But even once the practice is officially sanctioned, riders who want to hurry past stalled “cages” might want to consider the risks.

One of those risks, apparently, is being murdered at the hands of a heavily-tattooed woman who likes taking risque photos.

According to the police, Darla Renee Jackson became involved in an altercation with 39-year-old Navy chief and special-operations veteran Zach Buob that ended with her ramming his Ducati and then running him down, resulting in Buob’s death. Speculation around the motorcycling community is that Ms. Jackson was annoyed with Buob for lane-splitting.

Various anonymous people on the Internet have combined to make a Facebook page featuring photos of Ms. Jackson in revealing apparel, in which she displays a remarkable array of tattoos. You can see it here, but I do not recommend you click that link at work, because it will almost certainly result in your termination. Unless you work at a strip club, at which point you’ll probably be told to “raise your standards.”

One of the more interesting posts on the FB page claims that Ms. Jackson was the anonymous victim who accused minor-label rapper and alleged gang boss “Mitchy Slick” of kidnapping this past September. The DA decided not to pursue the case, leading people to speculate that there was no credible evidence. It’s also been speculated that Ms. Jackson’s tattoos are, at least in part, marks of gang ownership.

I’m currently riding my pair of Honda motorcycles nearly as much as I’m driving my non-sporty Honda coupe, and I work very hard to avoid raising the ire of drivers. I don’t run them close, I don’t zip by them at closing speeds that might upset them, I use a mirrored visor so I don’t make eye contact with some tough-guy wannabe in a Wrangler or F-250, and I look for an escape route every time I’m stopped. But when I was younger and angrier I remember operating in a very different manner.

Having spent a week lately driving up the coast in California, I saw enough negative interactions between bikers and cagers to last a lifetime. It’s not difficult to imagine one of those interactions leading to violence. And while it’s easy to come down on the side of a dead war hero instead of a live hard-faced woman with gang tats, it’s not always that simple in the real world. It will be interesting to see how this court case develops. We’ll keep you informed.