Who's in the wrong?

[FROSTY:Me]

You're blasting along a suburban street on your yamasukida 698. Its a lovely day and you're wearing all the right gear. reflective vest n all.
yea its sighnposted at 50km/h but you're safe and comfortable at the 76 you're riding at. Heck the yamasukida 698 has the best brakes in the world anyway.
Round a bus stopped letting off passengers and some bloody cager pulls out of a side street 100m up the road.
You grab the anchors right on a tar snake and smack into the side of the cage.
Who's wrong in this situation ?

[bogan]

assumption is the mother of all fuck ups, you assumed the cager would judge your correct speed and not pull out, the cager assumed you were sticking to the speed limit. Both at fault.

Though I had a mate in exact same situation, two cager crash though, other guy speeding left huge skidmarks which showed he was way over the speed limit, wrote off both cars, and mate had to use his diversion to get off the charge (forget what the charge was now)

[Ronin]

Well, since Skiddy could stop from 50 in 2 metres it's clearly you.

That and your 50% over the posted speed limit.

[onearmedbandit]

The rider. Can't blame any other factor, tar snake, bus, car driver. The responsibility lies in your hands (or hand as the case may be).

[Bald Eagle]

If you need to ask you should be a pedestrian.

[onearmedbandit]

Actually I've thought about this a bit further, and I now firmly believe it is the local councils fault. By failing to realise how motorcycles reduce congestion, consume less fossil fuels, do less damage to the road surface and can decrease the time required for a journey, they have therefore failed to build motorcycle riders their own private roading system. One where those damn cagers, ridiculous cyclists, gas-guzzling SUV's, and toxic-fume belching buses and trucks are not allowed. This would instantly eliminate all motorcycle vs cage/truck/bus incidents. By ensuring only motorcycles can use this private road network the roads would last a lot longer and be in better condition over all, therefore even further reducing accidents and road repairs. ACC claims would drop dramatically from our fraternity (because it's always someone else's fault and if we remove all other road users we of course will never crash), productivity would be increased (less people off work), and most importantly, our friend in the above scenario would still be tootling along, being a responsible road user wearing ATGATT.

[CookMySock]

The rider. Can't blame any other factor, tar snake, bus, car driver. The responsibility lies in your hands (or hand as the case may be).

Yup. If you're dead, or your bike is fucked, you were wrong. Figure it out, do the maths, and do something different.

There is also the situation of the law - you have to be able to stop in the clear distance ahead of you, you must ride to the conditions, and you must not conduct yourself in a careless or dangerous fashion. All three I'd say the courts would have something to say about.

Steve

[Jonno.]

I would have thought no matter if you were speeding (75 isn't warp speed) it's still fail to give way?

[onearmedbandit]

I would have thought no matter if you were speeding (75 isn't warp speed) it's still fail to give way?

I'm sure that will put a smile on your face in hospital, knowing that you had the right of way...

[Gremlin]

how is passing a stopped bus at 76 in a 50 ever going to be safe? Trying to blame the road surface while speeding is hardly a winning argument either.

[MSTRS:Me]

Clearly it's the council's fault. They should have put the bus stop just past the intersection, so that vehicles pulling out would not have the view to their right compromised by a bloody great bus parked there...

[p.dath]

I'd say both parties have some fault, but the rider more so. With 100m of visibility and travelling at 50km/h about 7s to 8s of time would elapse between the two impacting should the bike not slow down in anticipation of the danger in front (and if you perceive danger in front of you you naturally drop a little bit of speed anyway).

The cage would normally have been able to pull out into the other lane in probably 3s, still leaving a healthy safety margin.

So in this case, I think the rider was going too fast for the conditions. The visibility that the rider had did not afford them sufficient distance to bring the bike to a safe stop - despite the environmental conditions. If they were going at 50km/h, even with gentle braking they should have been able to safely stop.

And the ultimate nail. If you put yourself in the position of being injured then you have to accept responsibility for that. Never put your safety in the hands of someone else - especially a cage in front of you that you have never met or seen before.

[Owl]

I would say the car driver is at fault (failing to give way), but the rider's actions were contributory.

[Murray]

yea its sighnposted at 50km/h but you're safe and comfortable at the 76 you're riding at.
Round a bus stopped letting off passengers

The legal speed limit for passing a bus (or school bus) when it is unloading passengers is 20kph so in affect you were doing over 3 times the speed limit and I would think you would be at fault.

[Ixion]

20kph thing is only school buses. OP didn't specify a school bus. But, what's the point of saying 'whose wrong'. Regardless of the answer it's the biker lying on the road. Rectitude doesn't mend broken limbs.