Two close calls this week

[1950truck]

I've had two close calls this week.  Tuesday on my way home, I popped over a hill and there was a platter sized piece of asphalt laying right in my path.  I tried to avoid it, but still hit the edge of it.  It flipped up and knocked my left foot off the peg and the front tire started wobbling.  I was only going about 35 mph so I was able to get under control fairly quickly.  Yesterday I stopped at a stoplight on the way home from work.  I waited for the intersection to clear after my light turned green and waited another couple of seconds just to make sure.  About half way thru the intersection I saw a white minivan speeding towards me and he slammed on the brakes and slid past me.  I grabbed all the brake that I could and pitched the bike sideways so if he hit me, it wouldn't be a direct hit.  He couldn't have missed me by more than a couple of inches.  The idiot stopped after he was completely thru the intersection and I was very angry.  I collected myself and rode away without doing or saying anything (it wouldn't have been pretty if I had hung around, and I would have been the one in trouble).  Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, "stuff happens".

[bajakirch]

There's a reason they call them 'accidents' and not 'meant-to's'. Glad you got out of both situations OK.

I had a bit of a scare a week ago. I was riding home from work at about 4:00 a.m. and hit some super-thick, pea soup fog. My shield fogged up quickly, inside and out, so I had to flip it up. Then my glasses fogged up. I ended up riding with my glasses down my nose and my shield half-opened, with me looking out a thin slit between the 2 (waiting for a bug to permanently blind me).

I was only doing about 30 mph. Even so, I never had time to avoid the road-kill that appeared in front of me. Luckily it was only a raccoon. Anything larger and I would have been down. Went right over the top of it.

That was just one of those situations where you don't know what to do. Ride on and hope the fog ends over the next hill? Slow down to a crawl and wait for a cage to drive over you from behind? Pull off somewhere and wait 2 hours for the fog to lift?

I was glad when I pulled in the driveway that morning.

[Poligrafovich]

Always remember: asphalt, roadkill, and fog are stuff that happens, but cages are malicious intelligences bent on killing you. Ride safe!

[jerjohn]

I had a scare yesterday as well. I rode my motorcycle whle surrounded byhundreds of motorcyclist hungry, easily destracted, invariably pissed off, homicidal maniacs controlling objects 4 times my size. 

Glad youre okay 1950. 

[hppants]

When riding, do you ever get that 6th sense in your head?  Like "something is not right here and if I don't do something, I might die" feeling?  I get that in heavy traffic when they are weaving in and out in front of me.  Also, since my off, when it's raining (which had a lot to do with my wreck) it happens too.  With traffic, I try to find an alternate route off the beaten path pronto.  With raining, I just pull over until it stops.

[Burgi]

When riding, do you ever get that 6th sense in your head?  Like "something is not right here and if I don't do something, I might die" feeling?  I get that in heavy traffic when they are weaving in and out in front of me. 

Pants I don't know that, that is a 6th sense so much as common sense. 
I ride in all varieties of traffic all the time but the one I hate the most is where it is just open enough to have jerks weaving back and forth 20+ MPH faster than the majority of cars around them. Recipe for disaster and I don't want to be one of the ingredients! 

[Baileyman]

I ride in all varieties of traffic all the time but the one I hate the most is where it is just open enough to have jerks weaving back and forth 20+ MPH

Ditto!  A lot of my riding these days is in this kind of traffic.  My commute is often during non-rush hour times.  I prefer to stay in either the fast or slow lane.  It's a little easier to keep track of cars passing me only on one side.

It's crazy out there!  Be safe everyone!

[Bumblebee]

There's a reason they call them 'accidents' and not 'meant-to's'. Glad you got out of both situations OK.

I never could figure out why they're called accidents when 95%+ of what happens on the road are intentionals. They intentionally create the hazardous situation that you end up dealing with. Things like traffic signal and stop sign running is pure flat out blatant deliberately intentionally setup almost all the time due to negligence, incompetence and/or flat out personal self indulgence. Those situations are not accidental in the least.

The rule that no one knows about that is not in any book that should be rule #1 and the touchy feely denial of responsibility types would resist to no end: The operators first and primary responsibility is to the safe operation of the vehicle. Absolutely everything else is number last.


Slow school practice in the parking lot will help a lot with road hazards. It teaches you to actively be in control of the motorcycle and to trust the motorcycle to stay under you. If you're in control, you react instead of hesitate...and you'll still run over crud though the number of things you hit will be reduced. Riding on dirt roads will teach you how to go over objects that you can't avoid hitting.

[1950truck]

My son lost his best friend about three years ago when a woman chose to ignore a red light.  He had just left our house and was almost home when he was killed.  Aaron was driving a car and was killed instantly.  His death has had a big impact on my driving habits and I'm especially cautious at intersections.

[gammer]

There was a motorcycle accident at an on ramp near my work today. It couldn't have been good (not that any motorcycle accidents are good). Because they shut the hwy down for several hours and they only ever do that if someone dies in an accident. Apparently the bike was the only vehicle involved and it went into the ditch.

Some interesting things about the location of this accident:
- This on ramp has a very sharp radius on it. Lots of folks like to take it fast because it 'feels good'.
- I sometimes take this on ramp on my way home from work (its 1 of 2 options for me to get home).
- Yesterday I did take this route home and I did hit it pretty hard...I didn't take the corner right because I double apexed the corner and it felt kinda squirrly. I remember thinking to myself: "next time just take it easy on that on-ramp...its not a race and there is no reason to hit it that hard. Its better to take it easy and survive so I can ride it again another day".

Needless to say, when I heard about the accident on the radio and the details of it, it kind of creeped me out.

[Epy]

I've wrecked once by myself but never really gotten in deep as that. The thing that's kept me out of trouble for the longest time is what my rider course instructor told me, assume you're invisible and no one can see you even if they're feet away from you. It's made me drive very defensively.