Avoidable Accident??

R

ReSTored

Well-known member
Car pulls into HOV type lane, not seeing bikes approaching. Rider slams on brakes, starts a stoppie, releases the brakes (brake light goes out) and rear ends the car and ends up butt first in the rear window.

Accident 100% fault of car I think, but this may well have been a near miss if the rider had stayed on the brakes, vs. releasing brakes for fear of doing an endo. No ABS, and it might have saved the rider.

Biker lands on car roof (video) - ItemFix

Fire away...............
 
ReSTored said:
Car pulls into HOV type lane, not seeing bikes approaching. Rider slams on brakes, starts a stoppie, releases the brakes (brake light goes out) and rear ends the car and ends up butt first in the rear window.

Accident 100% fault of car I think, but this may well have been a near miss if the rider had stayed on the brakes, vs. releasing brakes for fear of doing an endo. No ABS, and it might have saved the rider.

Biker lands on car roof (video) - ItemFix

Fire away...............
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I hate HOV lanes. Especially with closing speed. I would never be in the right wheel track of that lane. I don't care about blocking position, the people jumping across the line are aholes and they won't look or care. I need as much space as possible. If he was in the left wheel track, he could have got over enough to avoid her. I have zero faith that a near miss would affect her future behaviour at all. Hopefully the rider can sue the crap out of her so she can remember every day for the rest of her life that she almost killed someone by being an idiot.

100% cars fault but as usual, the rider gets the worst of it.
 
100% cars fault. They should not enter the hov lane until the enter/exit allows.


However, I’m always very cautious when there is a speed differential between lanes. When one lane is at a stand still and there is another moving, I’m anticipating the possibility of a vehicle attempting to swerve out and jump into the lane moving well.


I’ve had that happen with a car stopped and waiting to turn left with vehicles stopped behind. The lane in the same direction to the right was open and I was cruising along when a car moved into the right lane. Almost curbed the bike to miss the car. If I was travelling at the posted 50 kph limit, I would have been cooked.
 
ReSTored said:
Car pulls into HOV type lane, not seeing bikes approaching.

Fire away...............
Click to expand...

There was a fatality a few years ago in Mississauga on the 403...
SUV stuck in stop-and-go traffic pulls into the HOV lane... Woman on her bike moving at a fair clip, slams into the SUV.
Now yes, the SUV driver is certainly at fault for entering the HOV lane where prohibited, but c'mon... Rider or drivers for that matter shouldn't be doing 100kmh along side a traffic jam.
You just KNOW some impatient idiot is going to pull out in front of you into that tastey HOV lane.
 
Gaoler said:
There was a fatality a few years ago in Mississauga on the 403...
SUV stuck in stop-and-go traffic pulls into the HOV lane... Woman on her bike moving at a fair clip, slams into the SUV.
Now yes, the SUV driver is certainly at fault for entering the HOV lane where prohibited, but c'mon... Rider or drivers for that matter shouldn't be doing 100kmh along side a traffic jam.
You just KNOW some impatient idiot is going to pull out in front of you into that tastey HOV lane.
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Sadly that woman was a motorcycle instructor.

We need to remain vigilant.

When i teach my students I explain it as @GreyGhost did. When traffic to your right becomes stop and go and you have a wide open HOV lane, blocking position moves to the left tire track.
 
nakkers said:
However, I’m always very cautious when there is a speed differential between lanes
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110% this. I *hate* differential speeds situations like this while on 2 wheels, and. yeah, if it happens I pick the blocking position that gives me the easiest "out" to avoid this exact scenario. If that guy had been in the left side of the lane, yeah he'd technically have been out of proper blocking position, but he'd also have had a chance to swerve and avoid, which is another skill everyone should learn and practice.

Unfortunately, here in Ontario at least, rear ender accidents are almost always deemed 100% the fault of the person who hit the back of the other vehicle when it comes to insurance. The police will typically charge for "follow too close" (what I got charged with when something similar happened to me in the mid 90's, although my landing wasn't as graceful), or careless if they really want to F you. This dashcam footage however would probably be a saviour and result in no charge in the end however as the car is clearly at fault. So far as insurance though, it would potentially be a hard slog to avoid the at-fault ding on your record - what the police do or do not charge you with has zero effect on the insurance determination of fault in the end.
 
Evoex said:
Sadly that woman was a motorcycle instructor.
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I remember that accident.

I'll try to say this in the most respectful way possible given the results were a fatality, but in this case, being an instructor and all, shouldn't she have seen this risk and done as I suggested above? There's almost alway a curb that is your "out" in situations like this, along with remaining insanely vigilant when in differential speed scenarios. I ride with the assumption that someone WILL come over into my lane, and if it doesn't happen, bonus.
 
PrivatePilot said:
I remember that accident.

I'll try to say this in the most respectful way possible given the results were a fatality, but in this case, being an instructor and all, shouldn't she have seen this risk and done as I suggested above? There's almost alway a curb that is your "out" in situations like this, along with remaining insanely vigilant when in differential speed scenarios. I ride with the assumption that someone WILL come over into my lane, and if it doesn't happen, bonus.
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not all instructors agree on method and theory! as i recall you`re in a somewhat senior position in your field, i assume you have had a similar experience :cautious:
 
PrivatePilot said:
I remember that accident.

I'll try to say this in the most respectful way possible given the results were a fatality, but in this case, being an instructor and all, shouldn't she have seen this risk and done as I suggested above? There's almost alway a curb that is your "out" in situations like this, along with remaining insanely vigilant when in differential speed scenarios. I ride with the assumption that someone WILL come over into my lane, and if it doesn't happen, bonus.
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I've seen the video and it's brutal to watch.

That said, she had time to move left and avoid the car completely.

I don't remember if she used her brakes at all, but could be wrong on this.

You're free to disagree, but that's my opinion.
 
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I recall seeing that accident…brutal and I pass that section every time I come home from work.

As for HOV and closing speed…don’t care what the proper blocking position is. I go and keep as far left of the lane as possible just to give myself most time to react, and swerving doesn’t need to be as high of an angle as from the right track to avoid.

I also tailgate cars in the HOV lane because there’s a much smaller chance of the car I’m following being cut off than there is of me getting cut off.
 
mimico_polak said:
I recall seeing that accident…brutal and I pass that section every time I come home from work.

As for HOV and closing speed…don’t care what the proper blocking position is. I go and keep as far left of the lane as possible just to give myself most time to react, and swerving doesn’t need to be as high of an angle as from the right track to avoid.

I also tailgate cars in the HOV lane because there’s a much smaller chance of the car I’m following being cut off than there is of me getting cut off.
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Just remember cars stop faster than bikes!
 
mimico_polak said:
I'm not providing advice to anyone. This is what makes ME feel safer and IMO protects ME from idiots entering the HOV lane.
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I was referring to my post and not yours. If my tire is on the rear bumper, when they touch the brakes, the closing speed is just above zero.
 
justride said:
The HOV lanes are not worth the problems it causing. Get rid of it ASAP!
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The politician/VIP express lane? That's not going anywhere.

Installing flappy plastic bollards on the do not cross line seems like a simple and effective solution for many of the ahole crossings. A large percentage of drivers completely ignore the painted lines. Smashing/scratching there car would stop lane changes at speed. Wouldn't prevent the type of accident in this thread though as you can get through them when going slowly. To stop that it would need a real wall.
 
GreyGhost said:
Installing flappy plastic bollards on the do not cross line seems like a simple and effective solution for many of the ahole crossings. A large percentage of drivers completely ignore the painted lines. Smashing/scratching there car would stop lane changes at speed. Wouldn't prevent the type of accident in this thread though as you can get through them when going slowly. To stop that it would need a real wall.
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The problem with those is...winter. You either end up with windrows on either side of them because the plow can't go over them of course, or the plow goes over them and pops them all off for them to become road debris.

They have them as "trafic calming" in some areas in my area but they remove them in the fall and reinstall them in the spring. Meh.
 
PrivatePilot said:
The problem with those is...winter. You either end up with windrows on either side of them because the plow can't go over them of course, or the plow goes over them and pops them all off for them to become road debris.

They have them as "trafic calming" in some areas in my area but they remove them in the fall and reinstall them in the spring. Meh.
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Plow train on each side of the bollards may work fine. Not much of a windrow if the snow is being blasted across the gap. Sure, it's not cleared down to asphalt on the hash marks but legally, nobody should be driving there. Every time I drive, I see dozens of illegal crossings (and almost every time, half of the crossings are a single asshat weaving back and for giving literally zero f's about the hash marks). Another alternative is some cameras. With enough strategically placed cameras and big fines, jumping across the line would be financially non-viable for most people. Hell, after a couple camera tickets, they could ban your plates from HOV entirely so if a cop caught you in HOV they could use the big stick.
 
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