ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Yep got to agree with the other ex-bikers, some of the things I did on bikes make me cringe now, how I survived one of my high speed crashes without a scratch i'll never know, it had all the ingredients to be fatal. I am here only by the grace of God.

I sold all my bikes bar a 1982 Honda 185 ATV which I just pootle about on over here a few times a year and bought my type r just before my son was born, I definitely used up all my 9 bike lives and then some over 25yrs of road, track and off road riding. I was a complete and utter tool when I look back and it was only going to be a matter of time before my luck ran out, I'll never ride again.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

It seems like most ex-bikers here have all done something extremely stupid and crazy on more than a few occasions which just goes to show that current bikers probably do ride unsafely. They are probably (and obviously) aware of the fact that they're riding way too fast or doing something unsafe on the roads.

dpb

So it doesn't matter what your background, if you're going faster than the speed limit you'd better watch out and swallow the consequences

The car driver could even be partly culpable , but if you're on two wheels the only persons that'll benefit is your offspring

Same on puzhbike, take your space but don't take the ****

dpb

There's not much horrific about it actually, just hear him announce something is amiss and then he's in the grass

jasey

The driver plead guilty and admitted to not seeing the bike or the car behind the bike !

The guy was clearly going way too fast for the situation he found himself in.

When a driver not paying attention to driving meets a biker riding like a loon the consequences are quite often disastrous for one or both of them.

My Dad told me when I started driving "Assume everyone else is trying to kill you and you should be OK".

Hopefully this video will save a life .

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

It's life mate and all part of growing up, I did some pretty stupid stuff in cars too as a young lad in the 80's, If anyone can honestly say they never speed or do anything stupid in a car or on a bike, then there's a very high possibility that they are telling porky's, 99% of the time you get away with it, it's the other 1% that's the problem.

Not many people buy fast cars and bikes to pootle about, it's just a case of learning where it's appropriate to have a bit of fun and open it up a bit. I said in my 1st post on the matter doing a ton past a junction is a big no no for me, this vid shows what can and does happen on a daily basis when out on a motorbike, I very quickly lost count of the amount of times people pulled out on me or just didn't see me for what ever reason, so one needs to ride with that thought firmly placed at the front of your consciousness.

As for risk taking it's human nature, the more risks one takes the less sensitive you become to the dangers involved, then one day your luck runs out.

Tidgy

Sad he died, but he put himself in that situation by going way too fast. That isn't an excuse for a driver to pull in front of him, but would the car have been clear if he was doing the speed limit?

There's been several videos of bikers coming off doing stupid things recently,

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/upda...his-own-crash/

I see all this 'think bike' signs when seems to be alot of the crash's are bikers doing silly things. Dunno if that's just the way its portrayed in the press or not though?

An0n0m0us

I would say the issue is when bikers doing silly things meet car drivers doing silly things that's when it goes horribly wrong.

Thinking back the near misses I can remember were from that exact combination - I was going too fast or filtering when I shouldn't have been and a car has cut across my path with no indication or without that driver even looking as they should have done. It was someone pulling across me on a motorway as I was literally level with their rear bumper that ended up with me doing an 80mph rolling stopie that was the final straw for me - and when I say stopie the back wheel wasn't just a little off the ground either I nearly went over the handle bars I hit the brakes that hard. All I thought about the rest of that day and after that was my kids and what would have happened if I had been killed. The bike got sold within weeks and i've never gone back.

The one thing that has saved me so many times on both a bike and in a car is doing the life saver which as far as I know you are only ever taught about in motorcycle training and not in car driving lessons. That look over the shoulder before doing a manoeuvre is called a life saver for a very good reason and everyone should have it drummed into them to do it.

hodgy0_2

the "Think Bike" campaign is still very much needed

because I am sure this type of thing, I.e the speed is relatively rare

most of the time bikes and cyclists come together with cars are at relatively low speeds and are simply because some drivers filter out bikes and cyclists from their vision

I think both my wife and I are pretty good and safe drivers (we are often driving other people children, so drive how we would expect someone else to with our children in the car)

but even I think that, unless you were 100% concentrating you could miss a biker doing a 100mph on a single lane A road

^Qwerty^

I've had two cases of it, the first at a cross roads in town, car waiting to turn right, no cars in front or me, none behind me, car sat there for a period of time which suggested they had seen me and then they turned and I t-boned the car. No excess speed involved.

The 2nd accident, as I posted earlier, was very similar to the video.

So regardless if your going too fast or not, other drivers still take you out, but I would say that you might have more options at lower speeds and it might not hurt as much.

legb4rsk

People perception of how fast things are moving varies greatly.Look at the problems you see when trying to join a motorway into a stream of 70mph traffic.
Also people slowing down far too early when coming off a motorway.
The frustration you feel when waiting at a roundabout or junction waiting for people in front too pull out when you see what you perceive to be a reasonable & safe gap.

MY point is that a motorbike travelling at possibly 30 to 40 mph faster directly towards you unexpectedly presents a small narrow profile & gives you very few reference points to the speed it is traveling as would a sideways moving object that can be judged against the background & things it passes.

Just to say I can see why the car driver pulled out.Not passing blame.

Be careful out there
.The best piece of advice I had was when learning & just imagine everyone else on the road is a homicidal maniac trying to kill you.

Kwik

iTrader: (10)

I think biker safety has improved since I was riding a bike. There's much more emphasis on training, stricter testing, protective clothing and high visibility clothing. That doesn't stop a tw@t riding at high speed in a t-shirt and shorts, just as you can't stop some pleb in an Audi using the wrong lane and cutting someone up just to gain 0.01 seconds on his journey home.
A bike rider always needs to know how vulnerable they are, I think this chap had forgotten.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

EFA

Other marques are available.

We wouldn't want any prejudice now, would we.

thenewgalaxy

You could take any of the crazy videos flying around social media and the internet of someone driving too fast, pause it at any point and ask an audience "what do you think happened next?". Unfortunately this one ended with the outcome many would predict.

Regardless of rights and wrongs, the outcome here is one dead motorcyclist and someone banned from driving for a year and a half, who will probably never forgive themselves for the part they played in someone's death.

I've seen a few incidents on camera recently, another one that made the media was the chap who straightened out a bend and ended up with minor injuries after going over a fence iirc Derbyshire way.

This video is there to make everyone think about the dangers of road safety, both from a speed and awareness perspective and highlights to me how a moment of madness - that we are all prone to - can lead to very serious consequences.

trails

iTrader: (41)

Huge amount of ignorance on display in this thread. The onus is on whomever is entering someone else's right of way hence the the judge finding the car driver guilty. The car driver even admitted not seeing either the bike or the car behind him. The rider should have been far more cautious when approaching the junction but even if he had been travelling at the speed limit he would still more than likely have been killed...

Props to the riders mum for allowing such harrowing footage to be used to educate road users.

jasey

For me the onus is on the person most likely to end up DEAD.

And that, unfortunately, is usually the BIKER.

magepaster

iTrader: (2)

Sad state of affairs. The car driver should have looked more carefully for oncoming bikes. But, the biker should not have been speeding. If he had been going at the permitted speed he would not have reached the junction at the time the car was turning. Having been a biker most of my adult life I understand the thrill of speed but I also know that everything on the road is unpredicatable and junctions should always the approached with care and judgement.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Well said, mate!

Kwik

iTrader: (10)

I'm not sure how you work that one out. At half the speed he'd have covered half the distance. Both drivers would have had twice the time to react, such as the bike braking, the car seeing the bike and the car would probably have turned and been out of the way.

Matteeboy

That "NO!" he shouts is properly haunting me.

I do drive at a fair pace (not on a bike) but try and be super careful. There is a certain speed at which I think (even in a car) "if this goes wrong, I will die."

Which is rather sobering.

That guy is going far too fast but that's still a horrific price to pay.

trails

iTrader: (41)

He was travelling at 97mph according to the police report so not double the speed limit...so moving at an additional 54 feet/second over the speed limit, maybe that would have changed the outcome but given the fact he didn't even have time to brake I suspect not.

The car driver turning right admitted to not seeing the bike or the car behind, so the speed of of oncoming traffic means nothing in the context of right of way and therefore who was at fault.

The poor guy paid the ultimate price for not approaching a hazard with appropriate caution but that doesn't change the fact the car drivers poor observation caused the accident.

trails

iTrader: (41)

Certainly not enough caution approaching a hazard...I just assume everyone else is an idiot and drive\ride with that in mind

taylor85

iTrader: (5)

This wasn't far from me , think the Clio driver got 24 months in prison.

Tho I saw this last week then got a phone call saying one my mates died in a similar situation that evening so it's very hard hitting

vindaloo

Similar to the cat & fiddle video, but with a tragic outcome.

I assume the dead biker had been riding on a road well known to him and was using it to de-stress or get some enjoyment after a hard day @ work or similar. ISTR he let previous "good" runs get in the way of looking at what was in the road. He should have seen the car preparing to turn right and slowed down at the least. If not tucked in behind or to the side of the "invisible" car he just passed.

J.

53

iTrader: (41)

To be fair this foolish over take could just as easily have cost him his life and the SLOW on the road couldn't be more obvious ! Mistakes were made, we make our own luck in this world good and bad

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I never really clocked how close he was to the car on that overtake, judging by the position of the bike his wheels were also inside the white line, which is just plane stupid, as above he's obviously on a familiar route, which appears to have led to a certain amount of complacency.

At the end of the day it's his speed and lack of caution that has created the situation, if he'd not been speeding from the off he'd have been nowhere near the junction when the clio turned.

Fate is a **** and it was just his time.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Without being inconsiderate and apologies for asking this, but what do you think was the specific cause of his death? Was it the impact of him hitting the ground when he went over the handle bars or would he have been out of it as soon as he hit the car? I'm just curious as I know nothing about bikes etc so apologies for asking.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Ruptured spline / broken neck presumably, and it'd take a while to get to the hospital as well.

hodgy0_2

The deceleration forces on the body must have been huge

P1Fanatic

Wouldn't wish that on anyone but way too fast. Added to that only secs before he was still acknowledging the car he overtook with left hand and lean of the head which makes me think he wasn't properly focused on the junction. Strange that the car driver didn't see the car behind that the bike had just overtaken. That admission is probably what sealed the judges decision.