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According to what Im being told, he was not at fault.
Riding a motorcycle on the expressway is just way too dangerous imo, I dont care how experienced a rider you are, its just not a safe place at those speeds for bikes, cars and trucks are always going to outnumber bikes.
Its kind of strange, but when I looked into getting a bike not long ago, when I inquired about insurance coverage, I was surprised how cheap full coverage was, considering how dangerous they are and ANY accident on a motorcycle is likely going to be bad (even with a helmet), seems like the coverage should be astronomical.
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.
They will likely have up in to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills BEFORE they die though - measures will be taken with a young cyclist especially.
According to my insurance agent neighbor, they usually die pretty quickly, so they don't rack up crazy medical bills.
I just popped in to say I had to chuckle, OP, at your comment about being on the fence about spiritual matters but ask others to pray for the accident victim. Maybe you aren't as much on the fence as you think you are?
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,326 posts, read 54,350,985 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carnivalday
I hope your will is in order.
I rode for ~ 40 years and have more aches and pains from high school football than motorcycles and what I have from them was from running scrambles in the dirt. Seems like my strategies worked pretty well.
How about you? What experience are you speaking from?
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 rode for ~ 40 years and have more aches and pains from high school football than motorcycles and what I have from them was from running scrambles in the dirt. Seems like my strategies worked pretty well.
How about you? What experience are you speaking from?
I'm retired. When I was a trucker I put in over 750,000 miles, and in my other careers probably have driven over 2,000,000 miles.
I have never seen a car 'suddenly slam on his brakes' on the freeway. There was a reason he was braking. As a trucker I could see over the top of the cars, and oftentimes hit the brakes long before they did. 19 year old people don't know this. They just watch the car in front of them.
Y'all be careful out there. Stay away from other traffic. Just stay away. Go slower or go faster but stay away.
And never - ever - drive alongside an 18 wheeler. Or anyone else.
There's the key right there <bold>. I don't get why people must drive in packs. Maybe misery loves company?
I was told something many,many years ago and it's advice that holds to this day. Never drive in a pack and to ALWAYS leave yourself an "out" in case you need to change lanes quickly to avoid something.
I hate packs of cars on the roadway, it's like watching a Nascar race and seeing the "big one" about to happen.
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.
If you ride, you either have to be always faster and ahead of traffic or stay coasting behind big slow trucks to avoid other clueless drivers.
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Maybe misery loves company?
