This past Saturday during the Veterans' Celebration at the Charlotte Motor Speedway track, two Vietnam veterans collided on their motorcycles, the results fatal for both of them.

Witnesses at the event reported that motorcyclists were riding around the track going in opposite directions prior to the collision of Thomas Franklin Hollingsworth, 71, of Piedmont, South Carolina, and Alan Richard Mockus, 66, of Alto, Georgia.

The coordinator of the Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle club consisting of mostly Vietnam veterans, Barry Burke, stated that motorcyclists were informed prior to the start of the event that they would only be permitted to ride up to 35 mph, and only during the opening and closing processions. Both Hollingsworth and Mockus were traveling at 50 mph, about a half-hour after the closing of the event.

The head-on accident happened at a steeply banked turn and Police Major Allen Overcash stated that “we have some evidence that one of the gentlemen may have been drinking,” (Vietnam vet deaths: Motorcycle at 50 mph before head-on crash, David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times,
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-vietnam-veterans-collision-20120404,0,2063687.story). Mockus's wife, Deborah, was also involved in the crash as she was riding passenger on his motorcycle, has transported to a hospital and is currently in critical condition.

The toxicology tests on both Mockus and Hollingsworth will take about a month for results. As Overcash has stated, “which one was going in the ‘right' direction, we can't say at this time,” (Vietnam vet deaths: Motorcycle at 50 mph before head-on crash, David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times).