Heading back over the bridge about 4:30pm yesterday, an interesting event occurred.
Traffic was moving well (80kmh) but was pretty full in all lanes for that speed. As usual, following distances were a bit close but nothing unusual. It did mean the roadway was not that clear.
I was heading north and roughly at the crest I moved from lane 5 to 4. I was in a nice "bubble" - holding a good distance from the car in front and the van behind (which I had moved in front of) was a safe distance behind. Or so I thought...
An Audi Q7 that had been behind me in L5 overtook me and settled a bit close up behind another car. He was probably 30-40 metres diagonally ahead of me when I saw the broom (a fairly hefty wooden one) lying on the lines between lane 4 and 5 just before he reached it. I just had time to think "don't you fucking clip th...." when he did and it took off straight at where I was about to be. I say straight, the trajectory was direct but it was spinning around and end-over-end in a rather disconcerting way.
I am not sure if I moved left in my lane but if I did, it wasn't much. I neither braked nor accelerated. I tried to look up the road and not straight at the broom. I did lift my right foot off the peg and hoicked it up as far as I could. I felt the thing hit my boot (probably the head of it) and I have no idea if any of it hit the bike, although I didn't hear it. I'd say this was all over in about 0.5 to 1 second.
I looked back over my shoulder to see it lying in the middle of the carriageway. There was an HP wagon on the toll plaza so I pulled over to give him the good news and carried on home.
So I was trying to think what I could have done differently. The fact I made it home shiny side up suggests it was not all bad. If I had gunned it as soon as I saw it, it might have gone behind me although at 80 in top gear my thumper is not that swift. If I had braked hard, maybe I'd have dropped it (very bad in that traffic) or maybe I'd have been collected by the van behind (v v bad indeed) or maybe it would have passed in front of me. I probably could have counter-steered left a bit more as I was in the centre of the lane so had some room for manoeuvre.
What I have mainly been wondering was if it was a failure of observation. I did not see any vehicles up ahead make a notable effort to avoid it (and the Q7 certainly didn't - almost the opposite seemed true) and the volume of traffic in front of me meant it would have been hard to see, but not impossible. So I think I have to knock marks off for not seeing it earlier and getting over to lane 3. So my lesson will be: I need to actively scan all of the roadway ahead, not just my lane.
Any other suggested lessons welcome.
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Originally Posted by Bert
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