Here is a video which demonstrates a classic cager v. motorcycle scenario whereby a cager cuts off a motorcycle and causes the motorcycle to crash, probably causing severe personal injuries to the motorcyclist.
First off there is no excusing the cager whatsoever for causing this motorcycle accident. The car has a duty of due care to ensure that there is no one in the other lane before changing lanes. The video clearly shows that the biker owned the lane, and was clearly not at fault in this accident. I handle motorcycle cases such as this on a daily basis. Most of the time there is not video like this to show what actually happened in a motorcycle accident.
From the video it appears at least to me that the accident could have probably been avoided had the biker been riding slower. You may agree with me that it appears that the car took a bit of time before the biker hit the car. Had the biker been going slower, this accident probably could have been avoided.
What is the lesson learned by this video; Ride like you are invisible. If you are on city streets or highways, anticipate that some idiot is going to cut in front of you in their car. Ride defensively and always try to leave yourself a way out.
Obviously, there are times when there is flat out nothing that you can do, however, the lesson of this video is that riding slower on city streets and highways where cars and cagers will be entering and changing lanes may save your life!
This video is no longer available on YouTube.
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2008
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Good article Norm. Yes, it looks like the motorcycle was going pretty fast and seems he should have seen the cager moving over into his lane from way back. Maybe he was looking to the side or something.
I do a lot of distance cycling and must anticipate all situations every minute, however remote a accident may seem, even looking for a place to ditch the bike on the shoulder should a cager cut me off. Cars cutting in front of you and just plain creeping close to you is very common, many of these cagers are yakking away on cellphones, oblivious to anything else and now they have something even worse, “texting”.
I believe perhaps they should prosecute irresponsible car driving resulting in a accident as a crime with the same penalty as using a gun or knife.
G
I feel for the biker, and yeah, he may have been going over the speed limit but at the risk of sounding shallow, I always fear the older clunker cars on the road the most- usually driven by older folks or people who don’t care too much about driving less road-worthy cars (and don’t care too much about your safety either.)
Like the blog. Ill make sure to put it up on mine
I agree that the motorcycle rider should have been going a little slower, but that car had no right changing about three lanes over unexpectedly. Wow, thanks for the blog and the video.
There are several things this biker did not do. when you look at this video it takes quite a while before the bike actually comes into the frame. and if you look off to the side you will see pedestrians on the corner. When you ride there are three zones you MUST be constantly scanning. 2 sec following distance, 4 second brake distance and a 12 second anticipated path. this rider was in no way looking 12 seconds ahead for if he was he would have seen several potential hazards to avoid. he would have noticed the cage cutting across his pathway and yes spped was also a factor. there were many warning signs the rider did not pay attention to which if he was he would have slowed and had enough time to correct to avoid this crash
nice article…I really feel for the biker. Check out this video aobut why you should wear a helmet motorcycle:
http://buyhelmetmotorcycle.com/blog/
A friend of mine from college was involved in a (luckily low-speed) accident with an older driver who switched lanes into him because he didn’t see him. You are absolutely right: ride like you are invisible.
Ride like you are invisible and defensively is surely right … not taking away the blame from the cager … the bike rider could have avoided this if we was riding a bit more carefully.
Thanks Gary. I agree with you 100%
Norm
You are right Paul. There is no doubt that the car is at fault. Nonetheless, the biker should have seen this coming. This is an accident that probably could have been avoided.
Thanks for your comments about the blog, and good luck in your practice.
Norm
I love the thinking of people that ride motorcycles. They always try to blame the person driving the car for an accident. They usually come up with laws and rules of the road to try and prove their point. For some reason they always forget one very important law that trumps all other laws and rules of the road the law physics.
at least in Germany or Europe you have to pass left. And definatetely on a separate line. O.K. we do this here too though it`s illegal, but better slower and always carefully. Good video to show how not to do it.
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Car Motorcycle Parts
yes I agree with all of you guys! Don’t hesitate! drive with passion! just be careful. better safe than sorry.
-valk
Pretty cool how there is actually a video for this case! Thanks for posting!
Accidents happen all the though it doesn’t mean that it can’t be prevented. We must always be careful while driving any forms of vehicle to avoid accidents.
they should always used helmet. but still you will never know when accident strikes