Thursday misadventure. How to win a week in hospital.

[MIXONE]

Katman, either you have never been in a real accident or you're living with your head in the clouds. .

Of course his head is in the clouds because the man is a motorcycling god.

[MsKABC]

I'm taking the secret of invincibility to my grave.

Hate to burst your bubble, but that realization may have been made when you were still in high school my friend. I witnessed my best friends death on a motorcycle in a similar fashion. I was the teenage witness in this case. But thanks for the good intentions.

I have just sent some green bling terbang's way and congratulated him on being the bigger man and dealing with Katman's bullshit in such a mature way.

Sorry to hear about your accident terbang and glad you are still in the land of the living.

Maybe terbang could have avoided the accident, but we all know that the lady driving the 4WD bears almost 100% of the blame, and her actions following the accident were appalling.

[Edbear]

Regardless of whether Bruce could have done anything to avoid the accident, NO BLAME rests with him IMHO. The plain and simple fact is that the lady performed a sudden and illegal maneuver and was breaking several road rules. Terbang should not have had to second guess her, she was in the wrong and had been for several kilometers!

Sure, the accident happened and in hindsight could have been avoided as with most accidents, however, Bruce did everything right and I guarantee will be cleared of any blame by the Police.

I, and I'm sure most riders, will be able to recall incidents that could have turned nasty, close calls and near misses, momentary lapses in concentration on our parts. That is not the point, or maybe it is, in that the Asian lady was driving in a dangerous manner and perfomed an illegal maneuver resulting in a serious accident causing serious injury to innocent people.

Bruce, don't blame yourself, you were doing everything you could to ensure the safety of yourself, your pillion and the following rider. We are not perfect and it is humanly impossible to be fully aware of everything all the time. You were all the innocent victims of illegal and dangerous driving by the other party.

Rant over!

[Katman]

NO BLAME rests with him IMHO.

Bruce did everything right and I guarantee will be cleared of any blame by the Police.

Bruce, don't blame yourself,

You still don't get it, do you?

We need to stop using blame as our yardstick and start using our ability of avoidance instead.

[Mully]

Regardless of whether Bruce could have done anything to avoid the accident, NO BLAME rests with him IMHO. The plain and simple fact is that the lady performed a sudden and illegal maneuver and was breaking several road rules. Terbang should not have had to second guess her, she was in the wrong and had been for several kilometers!

Sure, the accident happened and in hindsight could have been avoided as with most accidents, however, Bruce did everything right and I guarantee will be cleared of any blame by the Police.

I hope I'm correct in saying that Katman's point is that while Terbang had no blame for the accident, he should be taking responsibility for his own safety.

As you say, he should not have had to second guess the driver, but too often, motorcyclists do have to second guess and take evasive action from an errant cager.

And he will be cleared by the Police - no question. But being cleared by the Police doesn't make up for having your daughter injured on your bike (and I'm sure the guilt that goes along with that), and spending a week in hospital.

Plenty of riders can have "It wasn't my fault" chiselled on their gravestones. That doesn't make them less dead, or the families any less grieving.

Maybe Katman's delivery needs some work - but you know what they say about squeaky wheels......

[Big Dave]

Best wishes and get well soon Mr T.

[Hiflyer]

Remember when out riding, just think W.W.K.D? (What Would Katman Do)

Hiflyer

[baptist]

You still don't get it, do you?

We need to stop using blame as our yardstick and start using our ability of avoidance instead.

I am a newbie and Katman you are according to the logo next to your name a mentor, so please tell me what would you have done? So far all I have read of use from you is that maybe the wheels on the SUV turned towards the right, maybe they could have been seen, well maybe, but maybe also the bike was to close or alongside and had no where else to go. I am not being flippant here but tell me, what would you have done right from the moment the SUV started to slow and pull to the left?

It is ok raving at other people on here to wake up and learn to ride their own bikes. Maybe you are just fishing for a bite, if so I don't think a thread about a guy and his daughter getting smacked is the right place.

So please explain to a newbie how a proper rider would assess and ride this situation. I for one in my naive ignorance would have probably over taken the SUV and on my small bike ended up dead.

[Edbear]

You still don't get it, do you?

We need to stop using blame as our yardstick and start using our ability of avoidance instead.

I hope I'm correct in saying that Katman's point is that while Terbang had no blame for the accident, he should be taking responsibility for his own safety.

As you say, he should not have had to second guess the driver, but too often, motorcyclists do have to second guess and take evasive action from an errant cager.

And he will be cleared by the Police - no question. But being cleared by the Police doesn't make up for having your daughter injured on your bike (and I'm sure the guilt that goes along with that), and spending a week in hospital.

Plenty of riders can have "It wasn't my fault" chiselled on their gravestones. That doesn't make them less dead, or the families any less grieving.

Maybe Katman's delivery needs some work - but you know what they say about squeaky wheels......

What I'm objecting to is the suggestion that Bruce wasn't doing all he could to avoid the accident which is patent nonsense in practice regardless of the theory. Yes, he could have avoided the accident, most accidents are avoidable. I could have avoided mine, too. Fine in theory, but rubbish in practise. Bruce and I were doing everything right as far as we could. I was under the speedlimit, driving according to the conditions, (wet), and my van was up to scratch in every dept. Yet I spun put on oil on the road. Why didn't I see the oil and take appropriate action? I was concentrating at that instant on oncoming traffic around a bend, and had glanced down at my speedo to check my speed, looked back up at the corner and was taken completely by surprise! Result? Written off van, (I'd just spent $2500 on it and it was in great cond.!), broken back, subsequent surgery and so far, 6mths off work. So do your criticisms apply to me as well? Obviously they do and I regret having the accident too. However, no-one, Police, Medics, family and friends have ever expressed any criticsm of me or of what I should have been doing to avoid it.

Bruce, at that moment was checking his rear view to keep an eye on the BF, checking his speed, (he knew he was doing 70km/h), checking the road ahead, etc. He'd been riding very consciously of those in his care, he'd followed this vehicle for several kilometers and was being cautious because of her erratic driving, doing all he could to ensure she knew he was behind her. He overtook cautiously only to be blind-sided by a sudden and illegal move by the driver of the SUV.

Katman may think he's the perfect rider, able to avoid any bad situation, quick to criticise others, but he's no more perfect than anyone else and if he's as cocky on his bike as he is on KB it's only a matter of time before he comes to grief.

Remember when out riding, just think W.W.K.D? (What Would Katman Do)

Hiflyer

Sorry, apparently I've given out too much bling lately...

[Bald Eagle]

Heal well both of you and thanks for sharing.

[MarkH]

Reading the OP reminds me of a time when I was almost in the same situation, the only thing that stopped me from being in a bad crash was that the fuckwit driver realised at the last second that I was coming passed him and stopped his right turn. In my case it was a fuckin' ignorant country hick that was so used to light traffic he didn't bother thinking about the chance of another vehicle using his road at the same time as he was. In my case I would possibly have taken the life of the careless non-indicating driver as I was travelling at 80+ km/h and in a car - I could have hit his drivers door if he turned quickly enough.

If only people would learn that you don't just turn a car across a road when there are vehicles passing you, or drive a car without being aware of what is behind you. Unfortunately we can't trust other drivers to put on their right indicator as they slow down so that we will know what they are doing. If there is one thing we can learn from Terbang's incident it is that we can't trust stupid drivers in 4x4s.

One annoying thing is that if Terbang had stopped behind the 4x4 and watched while it turned right then the worst punishment available for the driver would be a warning letter about turning without indicating - and that would only happen if Terbang could be bothered making a complaint (which is barely worth it when you know that the driver will only get a warning letter).

I sincerely hope in this case that the driver gets a conviction, though I'm sure that the penalty will be hopelessly inadequate.

[Katman]

So please explain to a newbie how a proper rider would assess and ride this situation. I for one in my naive ignorance would have probably over taken the SUV and on my small bike ended up dead.

Here's an idea - how about you put some thought into how you would overtake a driver that you have seen driving erratically.

Exercising your brain will be a whole lot more beneficial to you than reading words on a page - and may just help prompt your brain into action if you find yourself faced with a similar situation.

[scumdog]

Plenty of riders can have "It wasn't my fault" chiselled on their gravestones. That doesn't make them less dead, or the families any less grieving......

Ain't THAT the truth...sadly.

Having 'right of way' doesn't guarantee you will get it.

(NOT bagging terbang)

[miloking]

Not everyone can be suspicious all the time as to what a driver may be about to do....

Thats ok you dont have to be...but you die! Simple as that...

IF you are going to overtake ASIAN lady in 4x4 without any suspicion at all you are asking for trouble...

(before anyone calls me racist against asians ...same goes for buses, trucks, indian taxi drivers...or taxi drivers in general, bro's in lowered mercs and so on...)

[Jdogg]

Here's an idea - how about you put some thought into how you would overtake a driver that you have seen driving erratically.

Exercising your brain will be a whole lot more beneficial to you than reading words on a page - and may just help prompt your brain into action if you find yourself faced with a similar situation.

omm nom nom nom nom......stop feeding the troll people...

And terbang sorry to hear about your accident hope you get well soon