why they don't see you

http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/09/2...reventable-crashes-are-turned-into-accidents/

"From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Police say Hunt told them shortly after the May 2 accident that she
was applying red polish to her nails as she drove at about 50 mph
toward an intersection and did not see motorcyclist Anita Zaffke until
after she hit her.

Zaffke, 56, who lived in Lake Zurich, was stopped at a traffic signal
when she was struck."

At least she saw the rider *after* the crash.

the entry does go on to say "The driver, by the way, was charged with
reckless homicide. "

I wonder if that charge will stick. Probably no way of finding out.

Zebee

 

Sounds very much like she will get off

Note the last sentence..
They will try and get her off with this ploy


***
Attorneys for Laura Hunt say at this point in time their client has only
been cited for a traffic violation - failure to reduce speed to avoid an
accident. They also say they will continue to be in contact with the Lake
County state's attorney as the investigation continues.

On Monday night at Hunt's home in Morris, there was no comment. But her
attorney says she hasn't seen the police report and won't comment on whether
her client was painting her nails while driving.

"At this point, she is really distressed. There are some things she
remembers and some things she doesn't. She is distraught over this," said
Ragan Freitag, Hunt's attorney.





"""Freitag says Hunt is a mother of five and grandmother of six. When the
accident happened, Hunt was driving from Wisconsin to Des Plaines to deliver
a crib to a daughter who is about to give birth."""

 

I reckon it will be plea bargained down to nothing. These sorts of situations
there is no good outcome. Hunt will have live with the fact she killed
someone. Regardless of punishment she is not going to drive and paint her
nails again and it is not going to stop other airhead bimbos from doing it. It
is a total piece of shit situation not least of all for Anita Zaffke and her
family.

Fraser

 

Nope. Why'd did you let him do that? On ebay you can pick up compact
139dB Nautilus Stebel airhorns for about $50. They can't fix poor
roadcraft, but they can help soften the consequences (they give cows
standing in the middle of the road something to think about too).

Nev..
'08 DL1000K8

 

Yeah, but what do they do about geese? They're nasty fuckers, and
horns just antagonise them.

 

They must really get the shits when they see elk!
LC.

 

That's almost as good as the guy who followed beside me (me in left
lane) for 1km then decided to merge left without indicating for no
reason I could ascertain .. tho admittedly after that I was
concentrating more on staying in the gutter and not hitting his door
with my elbow than trying to come up with reasons other than plain old
stupidity or laziness..
Took about 10 minutes before my heart stopped going BADABADABADABADA in
my chest..
Sure we all have similar stories from the last month or so (depending
who it is) tho.

 

I have three waiting at the gate for me to come home. We used to have
four but one got too aggressive with the front wheel of the ute.

Theo

 

www.recipesource.com

Nev..
'08 DL1000K8

 

I remember in the early 90s in Melbourne, Swann Insurance used to run
free rider training courses which were held out at the Police driver
training centre in Mickleham and conducted by the VicPol motorcycle
rider training dept. The chief motorcycle trainer asked the class, what
is the safest speed to ride at? The correct answer was -and he added,
just watch any police bike as an example- slightly faster than the
traffic speed, and constantly moving through traffic, never staying
behind or beside a car long enough for them to forget you were there.

See, in your case, the problem as I see from what you have described, is
not that you didn't react correctly to him changing lanes over the top
of you, but that you apparently got in the situation where your reaction
was necessary. I bet there was some indication that he was about to
change lanes, but due to your road position, it wasn't apparent. There
is almost never 'no indication', but being in the left lane alongside a
car puts you in the worst place to observe.

Nev..
'08 DL1000K8

 

In WA, there was the National Training Council, a Gov't initiative
from the late sixties. Costs were minimal ($30 for six Saturday
mornings, as I recall). I did several courses there in the seventies
and early eighties with an ex-copper called John Neep, a great
instructor. My wife learnt to ride there. But, as with all good
sensible things supplied at the Gov'ts expense, it was cost-cut in the
mid-eighties, leaving new and prospective riders to be trained by
their mates and riding schools. The wonderful little circuit and
training ground they had is now part of the ECU carpark in Mt Lawley.
Sigh.

Exactly! You learnt your lessons well Nev.

Theo

 

Well aside from the horn and keeping out of his way, I could only really
see the other options being the choice of which car to hit if I overtook
or dropped back.

 

If what you're after is some sort of recognition of your super skills,
instead of posting stories about how you got run off the road, you
should skip over them and post stories (with sufficient evidence for
Marts to believe, I hope, this is the internet you know, you may not
even exist) about how you excelled at riding, and how you 'just knew'
that the van was going to change lanes 15 seconds before he did, so
you took preemptive action and appeared to be some sort of
motorcycling-superman to all observers

Nev..

 

Yes Nev, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a freak tight
cluster of about 8 cars in 2 lanes in Port Mac during "peak hour". I can
go into excruciating detail as to how I got in such a situation, but I'm
sure we can skip all that because you'll be right anyway.

However since you are so interested, the 2 cars in front of he and I
slowed before I on my wee 28hp 250 could get in front of him. He was in
a Hiace type vehicle and I was at his door, making sure I was fucking
visible because I felt I was about to get into a shithouse position with
cars front and rear, so to a large extent beyond waving a flashing light
in his window etc,,

The only thing I was wrong about was that it was later rather than
sooner. As for the 'slightly faster than traffic..' etc advice, it's
something that becomes clear pretty quickly when you start riding. In
this case, I'd actually not have gotten into said position not following
the first part of the advice, as that leads to following the second
part. [1]

[1] So ner,

 

Quite true Yeebok and as you progress in your riding days, so too will your
riding skills and perception of others especially car and truck drivers
Although you should not expect much trouble with truck drivers
Heavy vehicles I mean, not little dinky toy trucks
I have found that the most problems come with female drivers, expecially
those who are driving, or trying to drive 4WD vehicles,
they have a mind set of looking straight ahead and never to either side

 

...and then there are Camrys
Cheers

 

....and the wine! Don't forget the wine!


BTH
(that's something we'd really miss if the Romans, left, eh Reg?)

 

That's what the female drivers of 4WD's do when they put it into the side of
another vehicle or push over a bike
They whine whine whine

 

If I was a motorcycling superman, I'd not need a motorcycle.
However I'm here, it's harsh week so **** off patronising me.
For the record at no time have I claimed above I'm some superb rider. I
don't excel at riding. I rate myself as average or worse. If I Were a
good rider I would have realised I may not have room and hung back.

 

What Nev said. It took me the best part of an afternoon with a
full kit of shoehorns to get it all in there, and if you look at
the right angle you'll see a bulge under the 'Yamaha' badge on
the front fairing - that's where the compressor is located - but
the twin air horns have proven themselves to be single most effective
investment in my not getting SMIDSYIED I've ever made.

That they can't fix poor roadcraft is a fact, when the horns
sound, the merging morons tend to dart right-the-**** back where
they came from, and usually without bothering to look where they
went. In that sense, having the horns comes with a great responsiblity
to the poor bastard on the opposite side of the fuckwit who just
tried to SMIDSY you, but the local dry-cleaner will very much
appreciate the increase in business.

SMIDSYs seem to be largely oblivious to regular electromagnetic
horns, but bloody hell, they respond well to what sounds like a
truck on their rear quarter!


GB