Saw a ding yesterday

Yesterday (09-DEC-2010) at about 6:42 PM I witnessed a road traffic
accident.

The accident occurred on the Moorooduc Hwy 11, Southbound, just before
the Frankston turn off in lane 2.

Two vehicles were involved: a black Ute and a blue Yamaha(?) 1300

In the moments leading up to the accident, I could see the the blue
motorcycle was riding along normally in lane two in the left-hand
wheel track of the Ute. The vehicles were about 3 cars ahead of me. I
became aware that something was wrong: I noticed the black Ute had
started driving along the dotted line in the extreme left-hand side of
his lane, and he had slowed down to a crawl, leaving an increasingly
large gap between him and the cars ahead of him. The motorcycle
slowed right down too, and moved to the extreme left hand side of the
lane, still keeping the front wheel of his motorcycle behind the Ute.
Obviously it was much harder to keep going at the slower speed. The
unexpected slowdown probably forced the motorcycle to get closer to
the black ute.

The time from me first becoming aware that the Ute was driving
strangely to moment the accident happened was about 5 seconds. The
Ute driver was obviously driving that way in reaction to the presence
of the bike behind him. Immediately before the accident, the Ute
accelerated quickly and then jammed on his brakes and stopped. The
black Ute deliberately caused the accident (i.e. he used his car as a
weapon with intent to hurt the motorcyclist). The motorcycle hit the
back left-hand corner of the ute. The rider was knocked off. Both
lanes of traffic stopped. Some drivers helped pick up the motorcycle
and push it to the side of the road. The motorcyclist was not
injured; however his motorcycle could not be re-started, so he left
his motorcycle at the side of the road and got a lift with another car
driver after I gave him my contact details.

What a ****!

 

" ... so he left his motorcycle at the side of the road and got a lift
with another car driver after I gave him my contact details. "

You're dead right about providing that report to the police, but.

 

give your statement to the police, but only if you are willing to
stand up in court..

I would be if I saw that

mh

 

The only thing I would add to it would be the M/C was not splitting.
He was 3 cars ahead of me and the positions of all vehicles between
him and me and in lane 1 remained more or less the same (relative to
one another) for the minute before the accident. The fact that he was
not splitting is further evidenced by the fact the M/C hit the rear of
the black Ute.

 

Don't tell us, tell the cops.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

That's the trouble with Gerry,
he doesn't see things that are not about him
even though it was obvious to everyone else

 

wouldnt do any good. been there done that.

 

On 10/12/2010 8:28 AM, VTR250 wrote:
(snip)

What did the ute (and it's driver) do after the impact? Did he hang
around or bugger off?
Anyone get his numberplate?

 

The Ute left the scene of the accident and we didn't get his
numberplate. Following the advice given in this forum I printed off
my witness statement and took it too the local police station. The
constable on the desk clearly wasn't interested. When I explained
that an offence had been committed because the rider was hospitalised
(he got a dislocated shoulder) deliberately hy the Ute driver and he
left the scence, she checked her computer, looking for an road
accident but couldn't find any references on her system. My mistake
was I could've noted the bikes numberplate, then there would be
something to link to -- it's all a bit of a panic when a bike goes
down like that.

The police refused to even touch the piece of paper with the witness
report on it, so I'm not not holding out much hope that somebody else
would've got them to accept a numberplate.

 

Dammit. Karma says he'll die of arse-cancer.

 

*shudder* Ohh the horror... the horror...

 

No. The Ute driver is a redneck with a bad attitude and the IQ of
tarmac. That is his crime AND his punishment.

 

I hope u reported all this to the cops so they can nail the ute driver
for negligent or dangerous driving - and maybe also remove the bike
rider from having to pay for the ute damage as well as his own bike
damage.

 

er bike rider failed to stop
yes?
partial cause no matter how badly the ute driver behaved

 

Well I can see that the insurance company would try that line, however
I would argue (probably unsuccessfully) that the collision was
entirely due to the deliberate actions of the Ute driver. The reason
is that the bike did have a safety margin between himself and the Ute
which was used up (quite rightly) when the Ute slowed down to a
crawl. The Ute then made life difficult for the bike (driving at a
very slow crawl) which made it difficult for the bike rider to reclaim
the buffer.

One option for the rider was to stop and wait for the Ute to pull away
enough to re-create a two second gap, before moving off the the speed
of the Ute (slower than walking speed). However I can understand that
the rider did not want to put his feet down, as that has its own
risks, nor did he want to rely on the car behind him stopping
(remember the traffic in this lane was previously doing 40kph). That
probably explains why, although he moved to the extreme left of lane
two, he did not consider moving into lane one to be an option either.

Essentially the Ute driver deliberately brought the rider in close,
created conditions so the bike could keep rolling, even accelerated a
bit, and then suddenly stopped. As the bike was a heavy 1300 cc, I've
no doubt the rider would have been busy accelerating to a slow jogging
speed at the exact moment the Ute stopped. The injury to the rider
(dislocated shoulder) and damage to the bike (broken fairing, bent
footpeg, and wouldn't start) was due to the bike toppling over on to
its side, and there was no significant damage to the Ute.

I don't think the bike was even partially at fault - even after
considering the rider's other option. Doing the same speed as other
cars and keeping a 3 second gap between yourself and the car in front
will dramatically reduce your chance of having a collision... but you
can't reasonably defend yourself against ALL hostile behaviour from
other vehicles.

 

All very "nice" but the law says you hit back you guilty and will be
followed by the insurance , you know why

rising water ?

 

What? Your reply is too terse, I can't work out what the hell you mean.
Could you elaborate a bit?

This doesn't make any sense and I'm really confused. Have you been
drinking?

 

Insurance companies aren't bound by the law. They make their own
determinations of the causes and contributions to 'accidents'. If you
have comprehensive insurance it matters little who is actually at fault
from an insurance customer PoV.

Nev..

 

AH so you are a bit slow then
Have you been

no more than you apparently

 

LOL I only had a bit!