Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Picked up the paper this morning and on front of local page is another story of a car/motorcycle accident. Once again it was the driver of the car turning in front of the bike. This is getting to almost be an everyday happening here. Whats worse is no helmet law in Florida anymore so your really taking a crap shot by not wearing one. It's snowbird time in our area so a lot of lost and confused people on the road.
Be safe.

Any links to their website version?

I would, but just looked all over website and cannot find in local section. Go figure.

I think hitting a motorcyclist should carry far steeper penalties than hitting another car.

I'm thinkin loss of license.

My dad's friend son got hit too, but it was minor. A cager merged into him and he jumped the curb so as not to be sideswiped. Then in the paper there is a story of a man and his wife who got killed somewhere in south jersey by someone making left. In the past week my parents, aunt, and grandfather have all tried to convince me not to get my M endorsment because of all these stories.

edit: This is same story diffrent paper, but it has a witness saying that the Bike was not doing anything stupid or unsafe

IMO, helmet laws are horribly ill conceived, just like the anti-smoking and seatbelt laws. They are really going to screw any of us that are under 35 when the time comes to pay for medicare for a bunch of people that are going to live (on average) longer than our system is set up to handle. Higher healthcare costs, higher taxes... just to sustain and care for a bunch of people who would not have survived if natural selection been fairly applied.

But that's just me...I come from a very safety-paranoid background. My father wore a helmet when riding in the '60s (and I wouldn't be alive if he hadn't...that's darwin for ya), installed seat belts in his cars before any seatbelt laws...everyone was always required to wear seatbelts when we drove anywhere, even before it became a law... and my sailboat had all the EPIRBs, SOLAS flares, and other safety gear you can imagine... and I'm planning to install full high-G harnesses (among many other safety features) in the airplane I'm building....

The more you raise the stakes, the more careful you must be. and anyway most safety gear is fun in a weird way...

Anyway... cars are dangerous for everyone, even other cars. I was driving to work this morning and some ditz in a scion came up along side me and started changing into my lane, eyes straight ahead, no turn signals, totally oblivious. Even laying on the horn wasn't enough to get her to turn her head. The only reason she didn't wreck her car (and mine) was that I was aware of her and I always leave myself an out, so I was able to get away.

For as long as I've been riding, the car turning left in front of a bike has been the most common car/bike accident scenario. I've had the misfortune of witnessing a few of them. I think it's a good thing to see these in the news all the time. It makes riders more aware of what can happen when going through an intersection. I know when I'm headed into an intersection and I don't have a car in the next lane running interference, I'm hyper alert. I roll off the throttle a bit and keep my eyes glued to the left turning car's front wheels.

any of them newspapers ever write an article about the thousands of riders that dont get killed every day.how many people killed in cars today???

kosmic klown wrote:Then in the paper there is a story of a man and his wife who got killed somewhere in south jersey by someone making left.

Not that it matters but this is North Jersey, near the river about 30 miles north of Trenton. What a tragedy. This kind of freaks me out because my wife and I were riding within two miles of this place on Sunday. The car would have been coming straight into the setting sun, the girl in the car might have not seen the bike. Not an excuse, though.

I agree with Flynrider, I'm very cautious when there's a car slowing down coming towards me, watch 'em like a hawk. I have absolutely no trust in car drivers.