So many accidents already. | Page 4 | GTAMotorcycle.com

So many accidents already.

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Lots of accidents this year indeed, but sadly, I think a lot of riders bring them upon themselves.

I'm not being an apologist for terrible cager drivers, but I'm saying that MC riders need to be aggressively responsible for their own safety as well - so often I see MC riders clueless to risks surrounding them - driving for extended periods in another vehicles blind spot when a simple change in speed would have them clear in a heartbeat, not adjusting their blocking position as needed to make themselves more visible while approaching an intersection (to avoid the left turn of death), removing, obscuring, or reducing lighting for cosmetic reasons, not watching cars pulling out of parking lots like hawks (you need to ASSSUME they will pull out in front of you 100% of the time), blasting past slower or stopped traffic in adjacent lanes without due dilligence to your blocking position and being prepared with an immediate out (caused a death on the 401 a few years ago for those who remember when someone pulled out of a stopped lane in front of a MC blasting down the left hand lane), and then of course there's just the blatant "riding like an idiot" people who throw caution to the wind until Karma catches up to them, which it often does.

We are the most vulnerable people on the roads and we need to ride accordingly - others WILL do stupid things around you, it's inevitable, and it's only going to get worse (at least until automation takes over) so a huge percentage of staying safe on the roads relies on the MC rider themselves.

Sadly, many of these common situations above are just not taught to people when they get their MC licence, particularly those who just go the MTO route with no training.

Accordingly, a lot of these accidents are a result of lax licensing standards.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Lots of accidents this year indeed, but sadly, I think a lot of riders bring them upon themselves.

I'm not being an apologist for terrible cager drivers, but I'm saying that MC riders need to be aggressively responsible for their own safety as well - so often I see MC riders clueless to risks surrounding them - driving for extended periods in another vehicles blind spot when a simple change in speed would have them clear in a heartbeat, not adjusting their blocking position as needed to make themselves more visible while approaching an intersection (to avoid the left turn of death), removing, obscuring, or reducing lighting for cosmetic reasons, not watching cars pulling out of parking lots like hawks (you need to ASSSUME they will pull out in front of you 100% of the time), blasting past slower or stopped traffic in adjacent lanes without due dilligence to your blocking position and being prepared with an immediate out (caused a death on the 401 a few years ago for those who remember when someone pulled out of a stopped lane in front of a MC blasting down the left hand lane), and then of course there's just the blatant "riding like an idiot" people who throw caution to the wind until Karma catches up to them, which it often does.

We are the most vulnerable people on the roads and we need to ride accordingly - others WILL do stupid things around you, it's inevitable, and it's only going to get worse (at least until automation takes over) so a huge percentage of staying safe on the roads relies on the MC rider themselves.

Sadly, many of these common situations above are just not taught to people when they get their MC licence, particularly those who just go the MTO route with no training.

Accordingly, a lot of these accidents are a result of lax licensing standards.
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Almost had me, until that last sentence.
 
This scared me a bit since the speed limit is only 40km/h in downtown streetville. Van left turn and sent the rider to the hospital. Now i am super careful at all intersections. Was the sun a factor for the Van driver I am not sure
 

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mrtraitor said:
This scared me a bit since the speed limit is only 40km/h in downtown streetville. Van left turn and sent the rider to the hospital. Now i am super careful at all intersections. Was the sun a factor for the Van driver I am not sure
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limit maybe 40km/h, but even at 40km/h to take a hit and a fall can be damaging.
 
Trials said:
And yet it is more then 4 times more deadly to be a pedestrian in Toronto.
Toronto Police Service Public Safety Data Portal
Sun should do an article and advise people to quit walking.
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Any time people bring up how many "times" something is more dangerous I shake my head.

Yes, there were 4 pedestrian KSI for every motorcycle KSI but to really determine the risk to an individual, this needs to be divided by something to normalize. You could divide by the number of pedestrians and the number of riders to get the likelihood that it happens to an individual, or you could divide by km's walked and km's ridden to get an idea of how far you can expect to cover before you are finished. Both have some issues and can be spun however people want.

IIRC the Hurt study classified as injuries per mile and pedestrian was twice as bad as motorcycle, but I sure as hell don't walk 20,000+ km per year. For me, my highest risk on the road based on km's combined with the risk per km is on the bike.
 
Maybe pedestrians are just 4.3 times less visible :|
 
I've been riding for a year and I just keep it simple. Head on a swivel, pretend I'm invisible to everyone, assume you're gonna get cutoff by everyone and prepare for it, keep finger on horn, and don't speed like a maniac. So far so good ?
 
Baggsy said:
Almost had me, until that last sentence.
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What, that lax licensing standards are the cause of a lot of accidents where the rider is at fault?

If people were taught things beyond the basics they would avoid putting themselves in a lot of dangerous situations.

When I got my AZ licence 25 years ago my instructor taught me WAAAAAY more than what I needed to pass the written and road tests. He taught me common sense stuff. Real world stuff. Hints, tricks, tips, and a wealth of other knowledge. The MTO tests, in comparison, were laughably easy and really only proved that you could recite an inspection that was drilled into your head (but many never really understand, they just know what to do and what to say to pass) and manage to navigate the truck a few kilometers on city streets without hitting anyone or anything.

The results of this sort of crap for several decades now is why we have so many issues with terrible commercial drivers now in this province, and I've seen a TON of avoidable accidents (ranging from big wrecks to countless thousands of dents, scrapes, bumps, sideswipes, and fender benders) that could have been avoided had the driver in the seat actually been taught more than how to regurgitate the minimums required to get the slip of paper.

They finally made it tougher to get a class A licence in this province some time back so the people behind the wheel will be less of a risk to themselves, others around them, and the companies they work for.

They could easily do the same for ALL classes of drivers licences in this province and solve a lot of issues...yes, including drivers and riders who are a risk to themselves because they don't know better.
 
My only wish is for insurance companies to actually do their jobs in punishing ONLY bad riders, and not just casting a huge net and punishing those that are diligent in training. Instead, they're only too happy to encourage and write a huge policy to Mr Schmuck who just got his M2/M, blew 5 digits on a new supersport, another grand or two on a full exhaust, flying up/down with a quick shifter until they accidentally disable/forget about the quick shifter and proceed to announce his lack of coordination with terrible rev matched downshifts on a crowded downtown street (probably dangles both feet from lights as well).. good for the laughs...

ZERO change to my annual premiums from RTI M1 course, nor full M course with Allstate.
ZERO questions about what gear do you ride with.
 
MSRP said:
My only wish is for insurance companies to actually do their jobs in punishing ONLY bad riders, and not just casting a huge net and punishing those that are diligent in training. Instead, they're only too happy to encourage and write a huge policy to Mr Schmuck who just got his M2/M, blew 5 digits on a new supersport, another grand or two on a full exhaust, flying up/down with a quick shifter until they accidentally disable/forget about the quick shifter and proceed to announce his lack of coordination with terrible rev matched downshifts on a crowded downtown street (probably dangles both feet from lights as well).. good for the laughs...

ZERO change to my annual premiums from RTI M1 course, nor full M course with Allstate.
ZERO questions about what gear do you ride with.
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My understanding is, at this point they basically assume that everybody has done a course and price accordingly. As far as the gear you wear, I'm not sure that matters. Insurance companies might actually prefer you not wear a helmet as deaths are cheap. Dressing up like a power ranger is just as likely to be correlated with riding like a dick as it is to be a rider concerned about safety.

I'm not sure how to get it started, but an insurance discount (~10%?) for having taken a course in the last three years seems like a good idea. Many people haven't had a refresher course in many years. The discount would basically pay for the course so you aren't saving much money, but you should be a safer/better rider.
 
kiwi said:
Brampton area has a high level of immigrant population, you would think they would know about roundabouts as European and South Asian countries use them a lot. Perhaps these people were most likely on public transit in those places, but still, you would think they would understand the concept. In the US, places like Colorado, Oregon (Where I have visited recently) roundabouts are quite common in many areas. Makes us here in Ontario seem backwards. I think its our Ontario (lack of skill) style of riding and driving that is at fault.
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Brampton population also has the most idiot drivers i find. I take 407 almost every day from Dufferin and West. So many times, i even laugh sometimes, i would see an idiot driver going West and say to myself “ He/ she is going to exit at Airport Road” and guess what... most of the time i am right. Try that experiment yourself next time.
 
Baggsy said:
Almost had me, until that last sentence.
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What? He is 100% correct. This country has laughable licensing standards when compared to other safer, largely European countries.
Any moron can get a license here and they do. I regularly encounter people that shouldnt have a license but the Police are too busy pulling people over for "speeding". I know someone who bought his G2 license for $20.
Anyone can study the M1 book for 90 minutes and breeze through the test, then proceed to be out riding on the street, despite never have been on a bike before. Other countries require experience before your allowed to ride a "fast" bike.
 
Not even a fast bike.

In Queensland Australia the first 3 months of a L class bike ( 46 hp or less ) the new rider must be accompanied by another fully licenced rider on another motorcycle or in a car.

THEN they can ride on their own with restrictions. I think two years they get a full licence but it does not allow Open class bikes so they are restricted to those until they take a separate test for that.

That said ....there are still lots of accidents.

What's the point of threads like this?...motorcycling has dangers. Deal with it.

I do think tho graduated licencing would be a good idea for Ontario.
 
Talk about distracted drivers... just a minute ago i was standing on a red light ( in a car) on Mavis road on a “T” shaped intersection. All of a sudden i notice a car driving through red at regular speed without even a notion of slowing down. I must have waited another 10 sec for that red to turn green. Have a video too...
 
AlexCB500 said:
Talk about distracted drivers... just a minute ago i was standing on a red light ( in a car) on Mavis road on a “T” shaped intersection. All of a sudden i notice a car driving through red at regular speed without even a notion of slowing down. I must have waited another 10 sec for that red to turn green. Have a video too...
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Send it to the cops. Most have an online form. Afaik, at this point the driver likely won't get a ticket, but there will be an entry in the computer so when they eventually get pulled over, the cop will show no mercy.
 
I think i will. I have a collection of 5-6 videos i saved over time. This must be one of the best. I really can’t remember seeing smth like this ever.
 
You know guys, I'm not sure that graduated licencing is what we need. Considering how difficult it is to start riding in Canada for young people (mostly because of insurance and other costs).. and yes, I don't believe that insurance companies will lower their rates if we will have graduated licencing. More like they will increase rates for people with "open class" lics.

On a side note, I've just yesterday watched a video with the collection of recent motorcycle crashes.. and you know what, most of them if not all can be prevented if the rider would just follow best practices and ride defensively.. yes, even those where car drivers are 100% at fault and turning left from mid lane while texting..

So, maybe it would be better to have good readily available safety courses instead? Right now, it's easy to get e.g. M1X course. However, if you want to continue your education then you don't have much choice and in most cases, not so many dates available eigther.. I mean, I can't e.g. say, ok, I want to go to another M1X stage 2 course on the next weekend and in nearby location..
 
GreenPlane said:
So, maybe it would be better to have good readily available safety courses instead? Right now, it's easy to get e.g. M1X course. However, if you want to continue your education then you don't have much choice and in most cases, not so many dates available eigther.. I mean, I can't e.g. say, ok, I want to go to another M1X stage 2 course on the next weekend and in nearby location..
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I just thought about the CPR training curriculum. When I taught sailing, you had to re-test your CPR every few years to be up to date on skills and knowledge.

Maybe we should start treating MC safety courses the same way? Not necessarily make it a legal requirement, but I know quite a few people on here preach about doing safety training of some sort almost every year. I agree with them.

Something like a refresher - where you are riding with an instructor behind you telling you things you should be doing or can improve on. A few hours in class etc.

This should exist for cars too I believe... I doubt most casual car owners join a forum and chat about how they can get to work more safety every day. They get a license, sit down, phone out, and off they go :)
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