Biker fatality on SH16

[Lou Girardin]

What I'm saying is that even at 140 km/h, the Honda would have taken three seconds to close the gap to the car. At anytime in those three seconds she should have seen the bike and stopped. If she had pulled out when he was 3 secs away, he would have been able to nearly stop entirely. That he couldn't indicates that she pulled out when he was already clearly in view.
I've since found out that Honda rider had owned the VFR from new (1988) he was a very experienced rider and knew that bike inside out.

BTW the driveway is on the right coming down the hill. She would have turned right.

[Ixion]

In retrospect, hard braking may not have been the wisest decision. It appears that the immediate cause of the off may have been losing the front wheel, and even apart from that hard front brake would make steering harder.

He must have been past the apex of the corner, and if the car was hard to the left, there would probably have been room enough to pass between the car and the Triumphs coming uphill.

Of course, it is alwasy easy to be smart and smug in hindsight, from the comfort and safety of an office chair, and I do not suggest that in similar circumstances I would have done any better than the poor chap. At such moments there is no time to think, it is all down to instinct and experience.

To me, who is LEGALLY right or wrong is not really important, the thing is , what, if anything, could the rider have done to get out alive? I like to reflect on such things in the hope that, when confronted by a similar situation, the prior reflection will help guide me instinctively to the best course of action (even if the best at times is not very good)

EDIT: While I was writing that Mr Giradin added his latest post, which perhaps changes things . If the car was turning right into his lane, then running past on its right was likely not an option , since the car would have had to cross his path.

But if her driveway was on the right of the VFR , and past the apex , then the Triumphs must have been closer to her than the VFR? Surely she would have seen them , even if she did not see the VFR?

EDITY EDIT: And Mr Pixie did the same, which puts matters back as they were. The turn is irrelevant if she was on the road and heading straight ahead before the rider came round the bend. No different to coming round a bend and finding a car stopped or broken down on the roadway.

[Lou Girardin]

Sorry Pixie, I know you live there and all. But the rider must have been asleep to not have seen the car pull out. There is a lot of visibility through there.

[SwanTiger]

I like the point Ixion is trying to make here in regards to learning from the incident. "Car pulling out from intersection/driveway" is one of the most common causes of accidents and the better we understand it, the better we can minimise failure on our part to respond adequately.

I'm going to go for a doodle out there and i'll take some pictures from the point of impact (ish) and a general perspective of the road.

EDIT: Anyone living close buy feel like going for a cruise out there?

[Finn]

Sorry Pixie, I know you live there and all. But the rider must have been asleep to not have seen the car pull out. There is a lot of visibility through there.

Lou, do you remember which direction the car was facing? Was in going up the hill or down?

[Pixie]

Sorry Pixie, I know you live there and all. But the rider must have been asleep to not have seen the car pull out. There is a lot of visibility through there.

Won't be the first time a rider went into the back of a car through inattention

[Pixie]

What I'm saying is that even at 140 km/h, the Honda would have taken three seconds to close the gap to the car. At anytime in those three seconds she should have seen the bike and stopped. If she had pulled out when he was 3 secs away, he would have been able to nearly stop entirely. That he couldn't indicates that she pulled out when he was already clearly in view.
I've since found out that Honda rider had owned the VFR from new (1988) he was a very experienced rider and knew that bike inside out.

BTW the driveway is on the right coming down the hill. She would have turned right.

She was already on the road and proceedingly slowly when the bike came round the corner (and found a slow moving vehicle in front of him).
__________________
Wrong driveway.
Further up the hill on the left (from the Honda rider's point of view)

[Lou Girardin]

Lou, do you remember which direction the car was facing? Was in going up the hill or down?

Downhill plus more characters.

[Lou Girardin]

Won't be the first time a rider went into the back of a car through inattention

Who was that again?
Someone not unknown to us?

[Pixie]

Who was that again?
Someone not unknown to us?

Que?

[SwanTiger]

Well, that was interesting.

I failed to find any trace of the accident, there was no obvious debri on or to either side of the road, no skid or obvious indentation marks.

It was far too dangerous to go out onto the road as cars whizzed passed at some crazy speeds. Two I noticed crossed over the centre line and others you could see the suspension pushed to its limits.

Road Speed/Signs

• There is no set limit for the sweeper going either way
• There are no "concealed exists" signs when there obviousl are concealed exits
• If you look in the ditch of the south bound lane, you'll see several tyre tracks from cars that have run wide on that sweeper
• The Kanohi Intersection was rather busy, I counted at least 7 cars going in/out

State Highway 16 is becomming increasingly popular, but I think this particular stretch of road highlights a common problem on NZ roads. It is heavily over-rated speed wise and there is a lack of signage.

Conclusion

Legally, the rider is at fault "careless driving" or something along those lines.

The excessive speed and lack of reaction time or incorrect reaction meant that he failed to manage the hazard.

However in a round about way, Transit are to blame for a fucking POORLY managed road. There are so many driveways along that straight piece of road, two or three right on the blind corner that you come over a brow on.

This would tell me that the Honda rider didn't know what the fuck he was doing. There is plenty of room for a car to overtake as the shoulder so about 3,4 lane width. Meaning that if the car really was hard left, he would of had enough room to whizz past.

Something doesn't add up.

Either the car did something unexpected / pulled out fast but then slowed right down, or the rider didn't know what he was doing.

I've got some pictures to illustrate how bad the corner is. There is 150 - 200 meters of blind spot before you see the straight. I'll upload them later.

[SwanTiger]

I took three photos to illustrate where the accident occured, or at least where I can presume the accident occured. This is based off what news reports and Pixie has suggested in previous posts.

I'm not going to elaborate on what I think happened (as I did that in my previous post) so this is as objective as I can make it.

Make your own assumptions.

Photo 0 - Wises Map of SH16 section concerned. Each addition photograph is mapped out (approximately) to where it was taken. This provides you with some perspective. The First photograph (and they are numbered visually, look at the top of each image) shows the entry into the downhill sweeper.

Great for speed.

The second image shows the start of the blind spot (or there abouts) and the third then shows the vanishing point which ends the blind spot. The two driveways are "almost" only visable at the point of vanishing/apex.

There are additional driveways which are guestimately 100m, 150m (respectively) past the vanishing point/apex/end of blindspot.

[Motu]

However in a round about way, Transit are to blame for a fucking POORLY managed road.

Good grief - did you ever ride this road a couple of years ago? The last year or so has seen a HUGE increase in signage,every bloody corner has monstrous reflective arrows all the way around,every slightest possible kink or bump is marked,double yellows everywhere.A couple of years ago you just rode the bloody thing.

[SwanTiger]

Good grief - did you ever ride this road a couple of years ago? The last year or so has seen a HUGE increase in signage,every bloody corner has monstrous reflective arrows all the way around,every slightest possible kink or bump is marked,double yellows everywhere.A couple of years ago you just rode the bloody thing.

On this particular corner they have the large reflective arrows but little more.

And yes I do remember SH16 from that long ago.
I learnt to ride my GN 250 on the gravel roads around SH16.

My point is: This is suppose to be an alternative route north and the only other State Highway which allows you to get north of Orewa. For a road with such "responsibilities" it should be given more thought with the lowest common denominator in mind.

While taking those photos there was at least 2 - 3 cars a minute passing by in either direction.

[Edbear]

This accident shows how careful we need to be on the roads. It's the unexpected that will get you! As when I was cruising along Peake Rd. and came around a corner to be greeted by a tractor turning right across the road into his driveway! Had I been travelling much more than the 110 or so I was doing at the time, it could have turned out similarly to this horrific scenario. At 110km/h I was able to brake hard and avoid him, at 140 I'd have been a dead duck! The law about being able to stop in half the visible distance is commonly ignored and we have to accept the consequences for ignoring it.