A Cause of Crashes

[TM7]

A few days ago I was at a impromtu meeting with a few riders and the discussion got around to crashing. Seems our area governmnet has taken it upon themselves to install cameras at many traffic intersections...mostly with stop lights. If a vehicle runs the light, apparently if in the yellow mode, the owner of the vehicle will get a ticket for running a light somewhere during that tansition to red. He will get a link to view the photo on-line of his vehicle running the light and date stamped. NOTE: the owner gets the ticket, not the operator of the vehicle...This of course is purely a governmnet run money machine.

So what's happening is:
 ... a motorcyclist following a car that decides to immediately heed the light change can't stop short and runs into the back of a car
... a car behind the m-cyclists could sandwich the cyclists between the forward car and itself
... a m-cyclists trys to quickly stop to avoid cars, or running a light, looses pavement contact on oil/damp surface and goes down, often without warning or from loosing control
..or any number of other possible consequences


Rear ending of cars by cars is way up....usually the guy hitting from behind is at fault.


Don't know if you have these traffic spy cameras in your area...if you do ...so watch out for government making the roads safer near you.. .!


..TM7
.

[deernhog]

Simple fix don't ride up someones butt so close that you can't stop. If you hit the car that means you were going to run the light also and yea you would be at fault if you rearend someone in that situation.

[hillbill]

Simple fix don't ride up someones butt so close that you can't stop. If you hit the car that means you were going to run the light also and yea you would be at fault if you rearend someone in that situation.

yea pretty much.as a biker yu have to look out for yurself and TRUST NOTHING  to anyone else.

[torpedoman]

I was one of 4 guys tapped to write and teach the motorcycle safety course for the naval training center in Orlando. Number one rule "Watch the tires of the vehicles around you," the sidewall flexes before the vehicle moves it give you a tiny edge.The most common accident was were the m/c hit a car in the rear when the car started to run the stop sign blacked the lane and then stopped. Made no sense after some experimenting we discovered that new guys when this happens twist their bars to the front of the offender to steer around them unfortunately when you do that your bike turns the other way. Then they hit the rear of the offender. ( Now when you try this out please be going slow), I know you don't believe it and will have to try it.

[deernhog]

I was one of 4 guys tapped to write and teach the motorcycle safety course for the naval training center in Orlando. Number one rule "Watch the tires of the vehicles around you," the sidewall flexes before the vehicle moves it give you a tiny edge.The most common accident was were the m/c hit a car in the rear when the car started to run the stop sign blacked the lane and then stopped. Made no sense after some experimenting we discovered that new guys when this happens twist their bars to the front of the offender to steer around them unfortunately when you do that your bike turns the other way. Then they hit the rear of the offender. ( Now when you try this out please be going slow), I know you don't believe it and will have to try it.

That steering thing is mind blowing but correct and you can not convince someone until they are actually on a bike trying it.

[BBF]

They are almost as good as the unmarked radar/photo vans that were the vogue years ago in parts of Canada.

[Luckyducker]

Sometime ago, over 35 years past, I was trying out a new Suzuki 360 streeter and had a close call by almost rearending a string of stopped cars around a curve in a highway.  Since then I have been very careful about leaving stopping room in front, but had a close call last summer when I was stopped in a line of cars on my Goldwing waiting to make a left turn at a traffic light.  I was still in the thru lane as the turn lane was full and backed up several car lengths.  A woman driving a Chev Impala and doing Lord knows what else (clear weather and case of cranial/rectal inversion me thinks) came tire screaming up behind me, she let off the brakes and steered into the righthand thru lane at the last second missing me by a few feet but it kind of left me with a buzzed sensation for several minutes.  You cannot control what people in vehicles around you do, and when on my bike I will roll the throttle to get away from a cluster of vehicles sometimes to allow me a clear zone and will porbably end up with a he!! of a speeding ticket eventually.  Oh well, better than becoming a statistic.

[kynardsj]

The vehichle/motorcycle wrecks I have noticed since owning my bike is the fault of the vehicle driver not paying attention to the bike. I agree with what hillbill said "yea pretty much.as a biker yu have to look out for yurself and TRUST NOTHING  to anyone else" My head is on a swivel when I ride my bike and I leave plenty of room between myself and the vehicle I'm following. I live in central Alabama and won't even ride next to the outside line because of deer and armadillos.

[Glanceblamm]

Fact is in intense and dense urban riding you won't always be able to maintain a safe following distance all the time...somebody is going to pass you and get in front.

This is sad but true. The thing is that the traffic does not have to be really dense for it to happen. We have had the mandatory seatbelt law in effect for several years here and it was claimed to be a victory as injury's (not accidents) went down. The real cause for the accidents were tailgating and improper lane usage, something that should have been enforced but seems to have fallen through the cracks.