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Another "Left Turn Death" here in Maine....

Crash Discussion

Excellent discussion on causes/defensive equipment & techniques, etc......the only $0.02 I would add is that too many motorcyclists (that includes "bikers") have too much faith in the mindless people (all ages/colors/sizes/gender) that we are forced to share the roads with.....I assume that most of us are fairly normal, well behaved people......who WANT to trust fellow humans.......BUT......IMHO there has to be a change in mindset when we get near these wonderful people on the roads...I wish the motorcycle training schools would emphasize this concept........

......once we have it in our heads that these people (cagers) are going to do whatever is easiest/quickest for them to do...we are on the right track to surviving.......I might like some of the drivers on the road...but I still don't trust 'em! Sorry for rant.....I'ma ATG kinda rider with modulators...bring it on.....:thumb
 
I've been riding for over 40 years and had a few close calls when I was young; they were mostly my fault. But, in the last couple of years I have had more than a few close calls and most were due to people on cell phones and young inexperienced teenage drivers :groovy.

Take both of those off the road and it would be much safer.

DW

Boy THAT'S a loaded statement for sure.
Seems to me, that there's at least one populist movement AWAY from more government controls, not towards them. Wouldn't wanna mess with anyone's "freedom" now.... would we?

OTOH-
It seems that these same cell phone using, inexperienced drivers kill themselves and each other as often, if not MORE often that they kill us. :hungover But why enact specific laws or controls just for that?

Darwinism isn't dead yet, after all, right?

With all the technology available to us in the 21st century, when will every motor vehicle become equipped with an unbreakable electronic block on all mobile devices? :scratch
Oh wait. There's that government control issue again. :violin
Call me cynical.
:wave

(BTW this is neither a personal attack or a political statement- and I've no intention of having it seem like either of the two. I'm "jus sayin" )

Cheers!
 
There is also an excellent video on youtube describing SMIDSY, Sorry Man, I Didn't See You ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqQBubilSXU

It's astonishing that he can put on a video about SMIDSY and then wears black from head to toe! He is dismissing the findings of the Hurt Report, the MAIDS Report and the Wells Report which all conclude that low conspicuity of riders contributes to higher accident rates.

Screw the weaving: wear a white helmet and something hi-viz.

Harry
 
One last thought before bed (Have be on th jobsite a 4 am this week) , I'd like to see a study on hi vis clothed riders on moduolator equipped bikes who ride like they're in a disney movie and everyone is friends with everyone else,
VS.
The dressed in black contingent on blacked out bikes with loud pipes who ride like the cagers are out to get them

It would be interesting to see which attributes made the bikes more protected from carnage.
 
Google robot cars will save us

I am seriously longing for the google robotic car. If all cars become robotic, at least the other driver would be more predictable than a deer.
 
Instant speed bump

Straight porker type pipes, loud, don't do a damn thing except piss everyone else off and give the driver and passenger a future filled with hearing aids.
*I had them on my Harley when I got hit, it was in 98' Cocoa Bch FL. The 83 year old lady thought she hit a speed bump (I guess she did....me). She made the infamous left turn right in front of me as i was minding my own business driving southbound doing 45 mph. All I could do was what Wayne Gardner, Freddie Spencer and my wonderful older brother told me once..."if for sure your going down, go limp like a drunk". It was 95 degrees on a sunny day on a Harley yet I was still wearing my full facial Shoei, gloves, long pants and my faithfully out of style (until this accident) leather jacket. The only thing I could control was where was I going to hit her, no time to slide she would've run over me anyways. Hit the side panel by the rear wheel of her car and flew 35 feet in the middle of A1A right in front of Ron Jon surf shop....lots of tourists taking pictures only three people came to my help until the ambulance showed up. Their advice paid off, and the helmet was a definite life saver if I didn't have it on I would not be here the whole side lower front face was scratched and busted, same with the gloves, jacket and boots. Walked*out of the hospital three hours later with a bruised ego, bruised (from bending the frame) legs and arms nothing else!...The bike was wellllll let's just say everything was replaced except the engine. Sold it a year later for what I bought it for and decided then and there that I'll only drive an airhead. It took me a few months to get back in the saddle, I'm back and loving it, just now I reallllllllllly look at that left oncoming traffic on top of all the other idiots around me. Texting, talking on a cell or eating does piss me off and sends me into orbit, I just wish those people would only realize just how distracted they are but they don't, our society of know it alls and have it now will never learn unless it happens to them.
By the way her insurance paid for everything and I did forgive her, I didn't sue didn't want any of that, I just wanted my bike back. I wanted peace in my heart and karma does go around..:D.... Well my dear brother you were right about being a motorcycle nut,"there are those that have and those that will eventually, but you will drop a bike sooner or later".:buds
 
I'd like to see a study on hi vis clothed riders on moduolator equipped bikes who ride like they're in a disney movie and everyone is friends with everyone else,
VS.
The dressed in black contingent on blacked out bikes with loud pipes who ride like the cagers are out to get them

There is no such study, but here's the closest thing:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC387473/

Conclusions Low conspicuity may increase the risk of motorcycle crash related injury. Increasing the use of reflective or fluorescent clothing, white or light coloured helmets, and daytime headlights are simple, cheap interventions that could considerably reduce motorcycle crash related injury and death.

I strongly suspect that all these people who think black is the way to go on a bike have never read any motorcycle accident studies...

Harry
 
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Another fatal in Massachusetts yesterday.


Motorcyclist killed, passenger hurt in Foxborough crash
06/24/2012 10:47 PM

By Evan Allen, Globe Correspondent

A man was killed and a woman left in critical condition after a van and motorcycle collided in Foxborough late Sunday afternoon, according to Foxborough Police.

The driver of the van, 24-year-old Adam Cobb of Foxborough, has been charged with motor vehicle homicide, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

The accident occurred just after 4 p.m. at the intersection of Central Street and Leonard Street, when a 2001 Chevrolet van collided with a 2006 Harvey Davidson motorcycle. The man driving the motorcycle was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, and his female passenger was airlifted to Mass General Hospital in critical condition.

Both victims were in their 60s, according to police, who were not releasing their names pending family notification.

Cobb was being held on $10,000 bail pending his arraignment in Wrentham District Court on Monday, according to police.
 
Foxborough Crash

Hope he gets 30 years......:banghead

I hope he gets at LEAST 30 years. Being charged with a homicide and negligent driving are a BIG start. Let's take it the extra mile and actually imprison these people. Maybe a few years in prison and a permanent HOMICIDE on their record would show them how serious this issue really is. IMO one problem with today's world is not enough people are equipped to take on full responsibility for their actions.
 
Be as obvious as possible, but, treat them all like deer. - Bob

Well, yeah, they can dart out from behind bushes and stop when they should have kept going or vice versa. But deer are far more maneuverable. Not saying that some drivers are any smarter than deer, but I believe they are a little easier to miss when they do something stupid.
 
IMHO, nothing to do with DT lighting. It has to do with incompetent people being issued licenses. No more drivers ED in high school, do to liability issues and budget cuts, incompetent parents teaching (or should I say riding around with their kids JUST long enough for them to get a license), feeling of safety with 94 airbags, ABS, back up warning etc, which makes the consequences of not paying attention seem minimal.

It will not get better until we toughen up training and licensing requirements.

+1 on poor training. The current state of our driver training in America is SHAMEFUL! To the contrary, go try to get a drivers license in Germany. MUCH more comprehensive and I hear the test is very difficult.

As a LEO, I'd have to say that distracted driving is the damnation of this country. Texting and being sooo constantly connected to our "smartphones" is an epidemic in todays world. Now, they have started installing internet search engines in the dash of new cars. "Bing" at the touch of your fingers while hurdling down the freeway at 80 mph...just what we need :banghead
 
My first bike was destroyed when an elderly lady (on the way to church) waited until the last minute and turned in front of me. I hit just as she reached a right angle. Jumped off the pegs and got by with scrapes. Bike was all over the intersection. Over a quarter century later, any car stopped in the oncoming lane with the blinker on still has my undivided attention.
 
Be as obvious as possible, but, treat them all like deer. - Bob

Left turn killers and deer are number one and two on my hazard list. I used to think a nice evening ride in the country was great but deer tend to graze at dusk around here.

I treat deer with the same vigilance that I treat a left turning texter or somebody who stops at a perpendicular stop sing to my right and has a dent in the left front corner panel.
 
We all know there are distracted drivers. I've had a young female cross into my lane while driving my car, and she was head-on into me. Fortunately, she looked up from her cell phone at the last minute and swerved back into her lane.

The real question is...when does the incidence of death and destruction reach a level that regulators get serious about BANNING the use of digital technology in a MOVING vehicle? Could disabling mechanisms be put in place that would jam these gadgets unless the vehicle were STOPPED?

It used to be that owning a mobile phone was a sign of power and status. Now it's a sign of slavery...don't people get that? :banghead

Sorry for the rant...

P.S. My bike is equipped with "hazard flashers"...it's tempting to turn them on when approaching intersections...they almost look like flashing police lights. Anyone ever do this?
 
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My friend Rick had all of these on his BMW when a woman turned in front of him in Anderson, SC. he died the next day. He was ATGATT; it did not help.

The problem is nothing more than people driving while distracted. I have a buddy who drives an ambulance and people turn in front of him all the time.

THEY ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION.

Amen
 
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