Be careful out there

I always really thought it took 2 to make a 2 vehical accident. Even on a motorcycle I figured if I watched out for me, I'd never hit a car. I oppologize to all those that have had these incidents such as Mark Wing and Bluemeanie to name a couple. I've had a heck of a last few months and am really lucky to be alive really. I've ridden 40 yrs and up til recently can say I've never even been remotely close to hitting a car.
A few months ago, I'm riding the KZ650 along and a bus suddenly decides to make a right turn out of the left lane. I miss that wreck by 5 ft. Maybe my fault there, buses need a big turn, but turn onto this road was a big ????
FF to a couple weeks ago, the wife and I riding along at 50mph on a nice road, cars coming the other way, suddenly one makes a left turn directly in front of me, no signal of course. I jam the brakes on on that goldwing and see why guys want ABS, I lock up the wheels at 50, and nearly go down, but have the sense to release the brakes enough to regain control. Miss that wreck by probably 3ft.
Now we get a huge hailstorm and instead of riding to work like I do probably 300 days a yr I drive my 1997 F350 which is brand new immaculate looking. I'm driving along at 30mph and as with a lot of intersections, you can't see the side roads due to trees, fences ect, you just assume people are going to stop for a stop sign. What else can you do? I'm driving, car runs a stop sign on a 30mph road at probably 45 or 50, I have 1/2 sec to do anything, jam the brakes, but broadside this car sending it spinning off nearly 100 ft. I suppose my F350 is totalled and I'll get my $7000 payoff on a truck that was like showroom. My gosh if I would have been riding. I don't know, I guess the Lord is with me?

Hope you're okay besides the vehicle damage.

-Eli

Thank god you weren't on a bike, sounds scary. In California you get replacement with pre-accident condition or equivalent. Being the claimant hold out for as much as you can get. Good luck on the pay out. I'm lucky I don't remember anything about my wreck but witnesses said I didn't have a chance the way she pulled out in front of me.

Mark

Well, that's the third one Ron, so you're good to go another 40 years!

No question the roads are more dangerous than ever before. There are more unqualified/unlicensed drivers on the road than at any time after licensing was put in place. And I dare say that many of the licensed drivers aren't too good either.

Ron, I'm guessing that your confidence is shaken a bit and no one would blame you for that. Just keep doing what has worked for you. The company I work for drills a set of safe driving keys into us and I can post them if you'd like.

So, what happened to the fellow you t-boned? I assume you have good insurance coverage...the other person, even if they have no insurance, might come looking for damages...

It was a young woman driver probably 25 yrs old. She was shaken up but not injured and thankfully had insurance. I hit her on the passenger rear door area and luckily she didn't have a passenger as it knocked in the side of her car a good 2ft, broke all the glass, bent all her wheels under ect. She got the ticket of course, I don't know what all they wrote on her. It should be reckless driving at the least. The thing that I thought of most is if I would have been on a motorcycle I definately would have hit her the same way, but worse if I would have been on a motorcycle about 1/4 sec further down the road she would have hit me at 45-50mph.

Did she say why she ran the stop sign? If you had been on your bike she no doubt would have said "I didn't see you." But that old BS line would sound pretty lame when you were in a big F350 unless she is blind. Ed

Thankfully also there were two witnesses that saw the whole thing although it was pretty cut and dry what happened anyway. I walk over there and asked if she was OK, then said "you didn't see the stop sign"? She responded "I didn't have a stop sign"? The 2 witnesses and I said together "yes you did" and point to the sign. She then says "Oh". I guess she just wasn't watching where she was driving.

Man, things like this will definitely make you think. I'm glad no one was hurt. As for the vehicles they can be repaired or replaced. I never gave a thought to the two being wrong analogy. I had a tandem wheel dump truck pull out in front of me about twenty years ago and I T-boned it on a bike. He got the ticket but now that I think about it I must not have been paying the attention I should have. I saw him rolling but thought for sure he would stop, he did not. I did have the time to do a controlled slide and hit and bounced off of the two rear wheels. I would have been decapitated if not for the slide. It scared the shit out of me and I still shake when I think about it today. To blow a stop sign at 40 to 45 you have no reaction time to do anything. Every wreck on a bike is experience and is burnt into the mind. On that one I thought I would die. Once again I am glad no one was injured.

Glad you're ok Ron.
Yep, it's scary out there. I drive a large number of km every year and have seen many accidents. What is sobering is to think that a fraction of a second can mean the difference between life and death. Between normal life and everything changed forever.
When riding in traffic I thinks it's the health paranoia I have which has kept me alive so far.

I wholeheartedly agree - be carefull out there.

Again Glad you are ok Ron.

Times have changed and riding is way different today. When I stopped riding the Cell Phone really didn't exist. Now it is an entire new game. I got back into riding after 15 years last fall. I reciently was driving my car with the wife next to me when a fool on a cell phone approached from a side street and I reacted by swerving and hitting the brakes pretty hard. My wife said I over reacted. I agreed at first but after a few miles it dawned on me that riding the bike has changed the way I drive my car. The cell phone has changed the game and I question getting back into riding a bike all the time. Back in the day you would get ahead of cars and try to find open space. Today I put a car in front of me at a safe distance and use it as a blocker for the cell phone idiots. Driving skills by others are at an all time low. People read Newspapers, text, eat, talk on the phone, apply make-up, block the fast lane and pull in front of you when you try to pass. Not to mention there are way more cars on the road. In my life I have driven atleast 350,000 miles on a bike the last 5000 have been the toughest. I pray for riders every day...Russ

I'm relatively new to riding on the street, but with all of the idiots out there, I just assume that every car I see is going to do the worst thing possible to me, and try to be ready to maneuver accordingly. x2 on the "healthy paranoia" mentioned above. So far I haven't had anybody not see me and pull out in front of me, but I'm sure it will happen one of these days.