DAMMIT!

Passed an accident this morning. Bike down. 4WD being pushed onto tow
vehicle. Screens in place around ambulance.

Apparently it was a fatality. >:^(

*Looks* to me like a typical SMIDSY. 4WD was coming out of cross street onto
highway. Bike appears to have been travelling on highway. Cnr Great Western
Highway and Ross St, Glenbrook.

Shit. Yeah, I'm angry.

Tony F

 

Christ.

JL

 

There was a motorbike/4WD drive fatality on the News tonight. Can't remember
the town but it started with G...

 

5 minutes from my place, it's a shit intersection to get out of, I know it
well. Not saying that means its OK not to look first etc...

Al

 

Tony why is it a Typical SMIDSY involving a 4WD, I ride and I also drive a
4WD so I get bashed on both sides. The other day I looked to see a bike a
long way up the road and in normal cases I would have had plenty of room to
pull out, as I pulled out I looked to the left again and the bike was on top
of me, we missed, the bike was doing about 100 kph in a 50 kph zone. I felt
shit for coming so close to hitting another bike but I was also angry for
the rider putting me and himself in that position in the first place. I feel
sorry for anyone who has a crash or dies but some times we must look at
ourselves and see if we are to problem.
After all like car drivers not all bike riders are perfect.

 

Like I said - it "Looks* like a typical SMIDSY." I don't know, but... it's
an 80 zone. The intersection ~100m away has traffic lights - drivers
naturally use the reds on that intersection to pull out of the (busier)
intersection where the accident occurred. Typically, they check that traffic
heading down has stopped, and don't look as closely at traffic heading up.
The rider had been heading up.

One the way home I could see the skid marks were all painted and labelled.
They were short. Again, it didn't *look* like they had been left behind by a
bike moving at pace, but maybe the rider reacted late, or braked well enough
not to skid.

I agree that all not all riders are perfect. I've been less than perfect
myself.

It wasn't a 4WD bashing exercise, but the other vehicle *was* a 4WD. Had it
been a car/truck, I would have said car/truck.

Tony F

 

If you can not judge speed of other vehicles at intersections and if it is
safe to enter the intersection you should not be driving. I am sure if it
was a semi trailer coming down the same road at 100km/h in a 50 you would
not have pulled out in your 4wd. You percieve that the smaller vehicle is
not a danger to you so you take less risk.

 

Well Z looks like you are an expert, never had a close call or made a
mistake. I wish I had your expertise, god you must be good at judging the
speed at vehicle coming head first at you. A bike doing 50 kph covers 300
metres in about 21.5 seconds, plenty of time to pull out and speed up, but
doing 100 kph you cover that distance in just over 10 seconds, when the
speed limit is 50 kph in the residential you don't expect dickheads on bikes
or in cars or semi trailers to be doing twice the speed limit. I know some
cafe racers ( you may be one I don't know) think it is their god given right
to do what ever speed they like where ever they like and when they do get
hit scream like stuck pigs about f@#&ing car drivers.

So Z I have been driving for 29 years and riding bikes on the road for 26
years the only accidents I have had at intersections both the other people
were at fault, both ran red lights and both were speeding well over the
speed limit. If you have been driving for this long I hope your record is as
good or better, if you are not as old as me, hope you make it.