At 11:30 or thereabouts I was happily pootling along the Southern Motorway, minding my own business and checking out the performance, comfort and general user-friendliness of a bike which Haldanes had cheerfully and perhaps foolishly entrusted to my care. I flick on the indicator and start to move into the left lane, preparing to exit at Mt Wellington, when suddenly out of nowhere a white Honda Prelude (?) overtakes me on the left doing at least 140 and no more than a foot and a half from me. Instinctively I swerve to the right to avoid being hit. The white car vanishes into the distance as I try to recover my composure. Glancing in the mirror I see flashing red and blue lights. A couple of seconds later the first cop car flashes past in the left lane, doing 140 or more. Followed shortly thereafter by a second pursuit vehicle. Then a third. Then a fourth. A brief pause, then numbers 5 and 6.
I look up to see the police helicopter joining in the fun of the chase.
All very exciting. But a bit too close for comfort. A slight miscalculation on the part of the errant driver and I would have been history.
Makes you think...
Post-script: a lesson in taking too much for granted:
After the aforementioned incident, assuming that 6 patrol cars in hot pursuit of a an obviously die-hard criminal had used up all available resources and effectively removed all likelihood of being targetted for minor indiscretions such as slightly exceeding the speed limit, I decided to continue on the motorway and "open 'er up" a little, just to test the acceleration, you see. Successful experiment concluded, I was happily winding down when I noticed some more blue and red flashing lights, which subsequent events proved to be an unmarked patrol car.
To cut a long story short, I accepted culpability, grovelled shamelessly, and got let off with a warning.
To have survived two potentially serious encounters in the space of a few minutes I took as a good omen.
I bought the bike.
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Originally Posted by MikeL
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