My neighbors kid was in a very bad motorcyle acccident last night. (tail gate, stopping)
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Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lodestar
This is my forty-somethingth year of riding. I don't hesitate to admit that my fortune is due to experience, education, good luck and the courtesy of good drivers. I'd like to think I exist as well as ride by grace.
You don't get the experience without putting yourself out there and you aren't possibly going to know everything you need to know until you've been in some uncomfortable situations.
I've seen both the young and the old do some really stupid things on motorcycles and seen others take risks, both large and small, that in a fraction of a second can become deadly. It is compounded calculated risks that make a rider.
The day I think I'm solely responsible for riding without accident is the day I need to turn in my keys. There are way too many confounding factors in my opinion for every case to be clear cut.
You could honestly say the same about life in general.
You could honestly say the same about life in general.
Absolutely.
It's never just our strategies that "save" us; it's also how other people or the circumstances react to our strategies. That's why I said I live and ride by grace.
How much can we blame or credit others for surviving or not? The fact that I'm still here might be luck I don't even recognize!
So just WHY should anyone value your opinion on something you've no experience with?
I had an uncle go to sleep one time and never wake up. Do you suggest people have their wills in order before going to bed at night?
I dont have to experience jumping off a cliff to know its inherently dangerous.
U.S. government data from 2013 show that for every mile traveled that year, the number of motorcycle-related deaths was 26 times the number of car-related deaths [source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety], with a total of 4,381 motorcycle fatalities.
Even for those who drive extremely carefully and slowly, their risk of injury and death is still higher than if they were in a car. Its just a risk Im not willing to take.
Been in and out of motorcycles three times in 45 years. Hated to give it up but I realized I wasn’t mature enough to be riding one. For some reason, my last bike’s front wheel kept coming off the ground. No accidents during the last foray except for a minor lowside in Mexico’s Copper Canyon area due to a bad combination of rain and diesel fuel in a curve. Thank goodness for good gear.
OP: I hope your friend’s kid survives his accident.
I don't understand how he rear-ended someone, and it wasn't his fault. Maybe there's more that I'm missing.
Motorcycle insurance is so inexpensive because in a collision, the damage is usually minor (you'll cause a lot less damage if you hit someone with your motorcycle than you will if you hit them with your SUV) or the person on the motorcycle dies. Neither one costs the insurance company a lot of money.
19 year old + motorcycle = bad idea
I’m not the OP but I believe he stated that this occurred:
The car in front of the motorcycle slammed on its brakes. The motorcycle braked. The truck behind the motorcycle did not brake soon enough/was following too close or too fast & hit the motorcycle. The rider was thrown into a concrete wall.
I do not believe that the front car was hit by anybody.
It really doesnt matter whether he was at fault or not. Riding a motorcycle is horribly dangerous, you are on a rocket with absolutely no cover. If you arent hitting someone in front of you, then someone is hitting you from behind, or you hit debris on the road. If you are going to ride a motorcycle, you not only have to ride your bike, you have to ride every vehicle on the road around you. Which means being EXTREMELY cautious, dont speed, stay out of situations where you can get in heavy traffic. I know all the excuses motorcycle riders use, they were right, they had the right of way, a person pulled out in front of them, blah blah blah. Would you rather be right or would you rather be alive? Your choice.
Do you have a motorcycle license? Do you own a bike? Do you actually ride?
Just wondering because you have a lot of opinion going on in your post...
I have also ridden for years on high powered bikes in commuting traffic and on top of that in heavy rain.
The simple fact is that 99% of motorcycle accidents where the rider is judged as not at fault - the rider was at fault. No for causing the accident but for getting harmed by the accident.
I d not believe that more than 50% of the population out there has the ability to maintain the hyper-awareness that riding a bike requires. This is just an issue with how people's brains are wired up. Some people have the ability to hyper concentrate others don't, just like some people have the ability to get pregnant others don't. Nothing wrong with it that is just how things are.
Wearing a helmet probably saved his life and if he lived the first 24 hours after getting into the hospital he's going to survive. He will likely have lifetime scars from it. That is a shame but it is far too common because way too many younger people who get motorcycles don't get the kind of mentoring that is needed. It is more than taking a class. Neither of my parents knew anything about motorcycles and even now 30 years after I started riding my mother still tells me all the usual horror stories about so and so getting injured. I have had a few very low speed falls and some high speed near misses including one that was almost identical to your story except that in that case I swerved into the space between the median and the car ahead of me in the fraction of a second that I had and as I went by that car I could hear the semitruck's bumper crunching into it - I risked a quick look in the rear view mirror a second later and the semi was jackknifed and crunched cars were all over the road.
It's a shame he didn't have proper mentoring. Undoubtedly he will join the ranks of the people dissing motorcycles because he won't want to admit the truth which was that he didn't do what was needed to protect himself. Which is good because the most highly likely rider to be injured out there is the one who refuses to recognize their own mistakes. I make minor mistakes when I ride every day but I recognize and self-correct it is a constant process.
The reality is that with motorcycles all people are NOT created equal. Some of you out there cannot safely ride them no matter who mentors you and how much mentoring you get because you simply do not have the mental ability to do it. Quit taking this personally and dissing other riders who do. Accept that some people can do things you cannot do and you will be happier.
I’m not the OP but I believe he stated that this occurred:
The car in front of the motorcycle slammed on its brakes. The motorcycle braked. The truck behind the motorcycle did not brake soon enough/was following too close or too fast & hit the motorcycle. The rider was thrown into a concrete wall.
I do not believe that the front car was hit by anybody.
OP also said the kid on the bike had to slam on his brakes. Which means.... he was following too closely, as was the truck behind him. If he was following at a safer distance behind, he would've had more options for taking evasive action and/or even if the truck was tailgating that driver would have had more of a chance to react and slow down. This was a textbook chain reaction crash.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,364 posts, read 54,592,516 times
Reputation: 40841
Quote:
Originally Posted by carnivalday
I dont have to experience jumping off a cliff to know its inherently dangerous.
U.S. government data from 2013 show that for every mile traveled that year, the number of motorcycle-related deaths was 26 times the number of car-related deaths [source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety], with a total of 4,381 motorcycle fatalities.
And then there's the statement often attributed to Mark Twain who attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli: There are three kinds of lies. There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics.
Unless that 'government data' includes information on proper training, proper riding gear, sobriety of the rider, etc. it has little meaning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by carnivalday
Even for those who drive extremely carefully and slowly, their risk of injury and death is still higher than if they were in a car. Its just a risk Im not willing to take.
Everyone on this planet faces the same risk of death: 100%!
The risk of injury and death is also higher for those who choose to leave there house and experience life, not everyone chooses to live in fear.
Alot of people seem to want to play Monday morning quarterback on this or use it promote their anti-motorcycle agenda. Maybe we should focus our energy on our hopes and prayers that the kid makes it out ok.
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