You twat........ biker down...

Anybody we know? Looked like a Bandit [1] at about 7:45 this morning in
Durham, at the Milburngate roundabout.

I was in a works cage waiting at the lights on the roundabout, the
lights had just changed to green when I noted a white Escort van has
just managed to stop, obviously he was going to try and jump them.

As I passed I saw something flying out of the corner of my eye, a biker
who was obviously also trying to jump the lights. He ended up spread
eagled on the tarmac, having just gone head on into the back of the van.

Not much I could do though, I was on the outside of a two lane junction,
and it looked like plenty of people would have been getting in the way
as it was.

Nasty road conditions too, so even had I offered my self as a witness I
wouldn't have been able to help the biker, as he had just ridden like a
**** anyway.

 

Bloody footnote fairies:

[1] what else would it be?

 

Who knows, or dares to dream?

 

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 19:08:28 +0100, Andy Hewitt wrote:

So don't you think the owner of the van is due some recompense? You
should have done your civic duty and given your name and address to either
or both parties. The truth is the truth, even if it doesn't suit your
purposes.

 

No, he had been stupid too, he started the incident by trying to jump
the lights in the first place, then jamming on the brakes at the last
second. The biker was just as stupid for even trying - there was no way
he was going to make it in any case.

I saw no reason to **** up my day due to other road users' stupidity - I
can manage that quite well by myself. Besides, I would had to cross a
dual carriageway and park dangerously to make my way over to the
incident.

 

if it was a deliberate attempt to jump the lights, then serves him bloody
right.. so many times I've pulled away when ligths gone green to be met by a
red jumper who decides he's far too important to obey lights.. grrrr

 

(Andy Hewitt) wrote

I'm struggling with this. How is stopping in time to observe the red light
"trying to jump the lights"? Surely he timed it to perfection.

 

He overshot the white line by a couple of feet, it was pretty obvious
that he was not initially intending to stop. It's even possible the
biker was timing his braking to stop after the van had gone, but got
cought out by his sudden braking. Although I doubt this as he hit the
van quite hard.

 

Indeed, the favourite spot for me is at the Neville's Cross lights, I
very often find myself waiting in the middle of the junction for a
jumper to get out of the way.

 

Pressing the brake pedal and coming to a halt doesn't constitute
"intending to stop" in your book? He may have misjudged it -
initially thought/hoped that the green was going last for a while. It
didn't. He changed his mind. Who hasn't done that?

 

So your statement could have made apportioning responsibility easier.
That potentially it wasn't a simple rear end crash; neither party had
been driving appropriately for the conditions.

I work on the theory it may be someone I like, it may even be me, in that
situation so will happily offer up information. If it isn't 'someone I
like' then right is still right. IYSWIM.

 

Those damnable knitwear types.

 

No, he was so obviously going to jump them, they were most certainly red
before he got there. But yes, we've all done it.

 

Yeah, I guess you're right there. Too late now though.

 

Yup, if it was leather there'd be no problem.

 

that

Sounds like the majority of car drivers, really pisses me off when the
overhang the crossing areas.

Looks like tough shit then.

 

There is a case for not breaking late and hard to stop at a red light.
The evidence in my instance has been a couple of rear-endings - both in,
ahem, cages - by other cages. The avoidance technique is probably to
keep the approach slow enough that there is time to stop. One learns -
or not.

 

Yup.

 

Actually the proper way to do it is to stop when the lights change to
amber, you should already be stopped when the red light in on.

 

Remind not not to be around when you have an accident then. I hate to have
to **** up my day to assist your arrogance.