Motorcyclist: Fishing line strung across road in Graham 'snapped' across my neck, could have killed me

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. -- This warm, dry weather means it’s motorcycle season, a time when we see lots of riders all over the region on city roads and winding trails.

And that always creates a safety concern, especially sharing the road with drivers.

But one rider has a warning for others on motorcycles, after he says he nearly crashed his bike thanks to a dangerous prank that could have killed him.

“If I hadn’t gripped my handle bars as tight as I was, I would have fallen off my bike and crashed,” says Alexander Teston.

He says someone’s idea of a joke nearly cost him his life while riding his motorcycle on Friday night.

“I’m just sitting in the upright position and all of a sudden I feel a ridiculous amount of pressure on my throat. It was very thin, just like the line you see on my neck, and it just throws me back,” says Teston.



He says it happened at the intersection of 86th and 224th in Graham. He says he rode 50 yards past the light, it was dark and he never saw the fishing line coming.

“It was tied to a utility pole and a tree. The line snapped across my neck and I just kept holding on to my handle bars. Had it been something a little thicker, a little sharper, the jugular is right here,” says Teston.

“It may have just been kids pulling a prank, but a very dangerous one and we are lucky he wasn’t hurt worse or even killed if somebody would have been dislodged from a bike,” says Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer.

The sheriff's department  is investigating and detectives say they did find fishing line at the scene.

But as for how other motorcyclists can protect themselves, there’s no easy answer because something like fishing line is nearly impossible to see. With so many motorcyclists taking to the roads this time of year, Teston is concerned for their safety.

“Angers me and it’s ridiculous that people can have that kind of sense of humor if you want call it that; where someone is willing to do that. We need to teach people that vehicles are not something to be messed around with because you have someone’s life at stake,” says Teston.