F$%$%$% cage drivers

[FROSTY:Me]

Yesterday whilst test driving a company car I slowed to 5 km/h indicating a right turn. Traffic was light,bright daylight, straight bit of road.
The car got slammed up the rear by a car comeing up behind me.
Both cars are written off -
The drivers excuse was " ohh I'm sorry I diddn't see you"
I hunted high and low for my bike but nope I was driving a bloody big car.
Jeysuz -if cage drivers don't see other cages on the roads what chance do we stand??

[pete376403]

On the bright side thats two less cars on the road.

But yeah, we cannot expect to survive by relying on others. Your own survival depends on what you do to ensure it.

Interestingly, gang members don't get run into much - apparently cagers will notice the patches, and react carefully, giving them lots of room.

[Motu]

Something I've notice an increase of in the last few years is parked cars being rear ended.If you see a car being parked out on the street you can garantee in a few days it will have a huge rear end shunt.I was talking to someone the other day and he was following someone in broad daylight who nearly hit a parked car,she swerved just in time...but then she slammed into the next one! I won't say what nationality she was,we are all a bit touchy on that around here.

[Antallica]

I was walking through town the other day and saw some dude had backed up into a parking space, and conveniently put his towbar through the front of the car behind. He had just left the 4wd there with the ball in the car.

But hey, at least it wasn't a cage smashing into your cycle rear eh

[Jackrat]

Funny you should say that Motu,A bloke down the road from me spent heaps of time an money doing up an old nissan ute.Two days parked on the road outside his house an now he's doing it all again.And now I will finaly admit it,the last two close calls I've had both involved those other resent arrivals.
Apparantly they don't see two ton sky blue Nissan Patrols either.
That surely can't have been a threat perception thing because I would of killed the silly bugger.

[Motu]

Actualy most of the rearenders seem to be done at night I think....blind drunk? But it definatly seems to be happening at an increasing rate.

One of my brother in laws has a trucking buisness,but no yard,so the boys take the trucks home at night,or at least where they are sleeping at the time.One of them,a friend in our family actualy,didn't put on his night light...and some kids were hooning around the streets - one had his head out the window yelling and screaming...and yes,the result had them spewing for days.They were trying to hang a manslaughter charge on my brother in law/his driver on that one.Yes,it was negligence not to put the lamp on,but when does the responsibily of one party end and the other begin?

We have our eyes in the front of our heads,we are designed to see things in front of our face - if they can't see a car?....it's a worry for us on bikes.

[James Deuce]

My Brother wrote off a very cool, very quick Toyota Corolla SR coupe by hitting a parked car at about 50km/hr - he was ogling girlies.

[vifferman]

... when does the responsibily of one party end and the other begin?

Yeah, that's it in a nutshell.
We're living in times where people don't want to take personal reponsibility for their own actions, and where everything is becoming legislatively controlled.
How often do people just front up, and say, "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, it's my fault". ??
Admittedly, the guy who managed to drive his BMW backwards into our near-new garage door last year after spinning out managed to say just that...
It was some of the worst driving I've seen, but he admitted it was all his fault, and said he'd pay for all the damage (and did), and as he was a student, he'd have to sell his car to pay for it. I felt a little sorry for him, especially after our nosey neighbour got all excited and immediately called the cops, resulting in the poor unfortunate guy getting busted for careless use or whatever.

[Motoracer]

Sorry to hear about it man This sort of shit is very real and most of the time, our bikes are written off like this. Its a damn shame but I really really hate riding my bike in the traffic in town now cause its just too scarry. I don't mind taking the bus to work really. Might even get a MTB to go to work, that way I'll be more fit to blast harder in the weekends!

[scroter]

Ive been hit from behind on my bike before and to b e honest i dont care how defensive you drive some things you just cant avoid. Im also a linehaul truck driver and in my experience yes the people we all complain about are shit drivers but most of them are either inexperienced or just arnt interested in it. and thats the difference we ride/drive somewhere because thats what were interested in and they just use it to go somewhere and never bother with actually taking things on board like what there vehicle can and cant do or that there indicators arnt actually there for looks etc. On the bike we all complain about them not looking hard enough, in the truck we all complain about them pulling out in front of us. But because they dont take an interest in driving at all we can hardly expect them to be good at it. not really acceptable I know but thats just the way it is.

[Coldkiwi]

my fiance's dad got shunted while stopped at lights at botany two weeks ago by a girl from behind doing 60-70kmhr.. and he has a white long wheelbase Hi-ace van!!

nothing to do with visibility- some monkeys just aren't even looking.

ps. scroter... a 2004 gsxr k3? i'M CONFUSED!

[erik]

Sorry to hear about it man This sort of shit is very real and most of the time, our bikes are written off like this. Its a damn shame but I really really hate riding my bike in the traffic in town now cause its just too scarry. I don't mind taking the bus to work really. Might even get a MTB to go to work, that way I'll be more fit to blast harder in the weekends!

I dunno about you, but I find riding a bicycle on the road far more scary than riding a motorbike. On a bicycle you're trapped with the gutter/curb on one side, and cars passing you on the other side. Your safety is dependent on the passing cage drivers seeing you, and you can't keep an eye on them as they are out of your field of vision (not even any mirrors on a bicycle).
At least riding a motorbike you can use a full lane and keep up with traffic.

[Motoracer]

I dunno about you, but I find riding a bicycle on the road far more scary than riding a motorbike. On a bicycle you're trapped with the gutter/curb on one side, and cars passing you on the other side. Your safety is dependent on the cage drivers seeing you, and you can't keep an eye on them as they are out of your field of vision (not even any mirrors on a bicycle).
At least riding a motorbike you can use a full lane and keep up with traffic.

I ride the bycycle where its most safe but you are right, it maybe more dangerous...

I'll let you in on a little secret though, I was more concerned about my bike's safety than my own when I made that comment

[vifferman]

If you're stopped at an intersection, and have your bike in gear ready to go, and are watching your mirrors, then at least you can move forward a bit if it looks like you're about to be rear-ended.
One of the reasons I usually 'filter' to the front at lights is because of this, but the main reason is that I hate breathing in the fumes of cold car engines. If you're "being good" and pretending that you're a car, then when the ones in front of you take off you're breathing in all that unburnt crap, which is especially bad given all the toluene and xylene the oil companies put into our fuel to cheaply boost the octane rating instead of refining it... but I digress - that's another rant for another forum.

Speaking of people running into the back of you - it's only happened once, when I was taking my son for his driving test (he was driving). Some f*$#wit drove into the back of us because he wasn't paying attention. Poor Dave was shaking like a leaf, so the examiner rescheduled the test.
Then we head off for the test the next time (same examiner), and Dave goes "What's that smell?". I said "Smells like coolant - pull over!" Sure enuff, one of the hoses has a big split. Lucky we were early, so we taped it up, filled it with coolant and made it in time for the test (they cancel the test if you're late, and you forfeit your fee). I told the examiner about it, we had a laugh, and I said "It should make it around - if it blows up after that, I don't care!"

[DeanOh]

I had a mate years ago who got hit from behind on the motorway. Unfortuanately he had his visor up and ended up with a handle bar poking into the side of his head, he survived that only to be hit head-on a few years later, he survived the hit, but drowned in the ditch beside the road.
He probably wouldnt have ever won lotto.

Ive never been hit while riding thankfully.
I have seen the remains a brand new Ford laser hatch which had been parked outside a friends house. It was hit by an old Holden HQ, and pushed into a wooden power pole, the car disintegrated, the Holden rolled over and slid down the road on its roof. I never want to be inside a Ford Laser in an accident. Scary