Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Thanks for the link much more info.

From looking at it again, an armchair qtr back would say when she saw the smoke coming out from under his tires and crossing lane, swerve left...but who knows what was to her left at the time.

Just more justification/empahsis from the MSF class on the 2 second/4second rules I guess.

Good to see the video to give more to think about when riding with the cagers in heavy traffic.

Maybe this will save one of our fellow bikers in a similar situation from viewing this.

Treat every cager like they are out to kill you.............

Her justification for not going left:

Why didn't you go left instead of right?
You say you would have gone to the left. In my mind - I was calm and collected the entire time. I've gone through worse than this. But go to the left? It's not my habit to go towards the source of danger. Yes, in hindsight now...and now that I see what the Honda did - that is the right choice *for this particular instance - now that we know what happens!!*. But I had no idea back then. I wasted precious split seconds trying to determine exactly where he was going to go and how best to react. It was very hard to determine - especially considering he was completely out of control. No one at that point knew where he would go and what would happen - so I headed away from the source of danger. Going towards it would land me closer to the center divider...and I really don't want any chance of going over that center divider and into oncoming traffic.

The biggest arguments for not going left is because:
1. it would have been the longest route to safety since I was in the #1 lane and the Honda was in the HOV lane.
2. all he had to do to stop locking his wheels is just let off the brake - how difficult is that? When calculating the odds – odds were that he would regain some kind of control over his vehicle if I just gave him the chance to do so.
3. if he was swerving to actually avoid something - do you really want to go towards whatever it was he was swerving to avoid?
4. if you're full blown set on going to the left, you better JAM on it to make it...and if he had completed his 180 sooner and hit you - you would most likely go flying in the direction your bike was heading. In other words...your body would be carried, through momentum, to the other side of the freeway. Now, I'm pretty tough - but there's no way my body would survive getting hit by oncoming traffic at full freeway speeds like that. There was no way to calculate/know that he was going to be swerving, at what rate he would be swerving at and at what angle. With so many unknowns, I think it would be more risky to go towards all those uncalculated risks than to aim for the known risks.
5. It's truly not likely to even work - he's swerving and rotating to the right - if you swerve to the left...chances are very likely for a head on collision.
6. There are even less outs to the left than to the right. Going to the left, you have one lane (HOV), a tiny shoulder, a cement wall, and the other side of the freeway.
To the right, you have several lanes and exits off the freeway - there are just more options. In THIS case, a car on the right blocked that off for me...but the theory still applies. I was hoping that that car would have swerved away from the danger as well, giving me more room to maneuver.
7. HOV was the fastest moving lane, to the right are the slower to slowest moving lanes...which do you think is better to go towards?

It just goes to show that cagers will do some crazy stuff out there.

Bachstrad37 wrote:Regarding the first post...

No way anyone could have avoided that.

She could have avoided it if she swerved to the left instead.

Edit: Although I see her reasons for not going to the left, and her actions wern't bad, that happened incrudably fast and it was unusual so she did probably what I would of done.

I guess, but there is no way she could have know that he wouldn't have swerved back into his lane when he realized he was mentally challenged.

Randy wrote:I guess, but there is no way she could have know that he wouldn't have swerved back into his lane when he realized he was mentally challenged.

Yep, I put full blame on the car driver for that accedent, only a person with really fast reflexes/thoughts would be able to avoid that.

That kind of BS and the video of the cager cell phone left turn at the gas station has convinced me to wear full AGV SPORT leathers while riding (even if it's hot.) Also looking into a back protector as well. Besides being extra aware while riding, if that crap goes down, want to give myself the best chances I can.

See way to many people out here pulling the last second high risk left turn in front of me at intersections. Stupid cagers risk taking to get home 1 minute faster to rot in front of the TV.

Ride to stay alive..............

Avoiding that would be like the goalie in a World Cup penalty kick-- you gotta choose a direction immediately, and hope you guessed the right one.

From the looks of that first video I think the jackass in the civic INTENTIONALLY hit her. he nearly turned 180 degrees and hit her nearly head on.

That should have been attempted murder.

I hope she sues him and cleans him out completely

It is easy to speculate on what to do.
but one never knows,that happend fast!!!
then human reaction takes a second when somthing comes out of nowhere. then time to to try to manuver.{spelling not the greatest}
by then it was really to late to do much of anything.