car vs car on scenic drive 8/8/09

[erik]

I spent the first half of the day getting my bike back together after falling off it a couple of weeks ago on scenic drive. then I had lunch and went for a ride along scenic drive and old north road to hellensville, where the cafe I'd been meaning to have a coffee at was closed. So I gassed up and rode back. Stopped at a lookout on scenic drive for 10 or 20 minutes absorbing the atmosphere then continued on came to the corner I fell off two weeks before, went slow around it, carried on slow and a couple of corners on, there's a RAV4 with its hazard warning lights stopped in my lane going into a LH corner and someone waving to go slow so I slowly go past and there's another two cars up ahead in my lane, a head on collision! there were a bunch of people standing at the side of the road, no-one looked hurt and the cars weren't that badly damaged. I guess maybe the car facing the wrong way was driven by tourists or something and they got confused about what side of the road to be on.
So I rode home, swearing quietly to myself.

[98tls]

I spent the first half of the day getting my bike back together after falling off it a couple of weeks ago on scenic drive. then I had lunch and went for a ride along scenic drive and old north road to hellensville, where the cafe I'd been meaning to have a coffee at was closed. So I gassed up and rode back. Stopped at a lookout on scenic drive for 10 or 20 minutes absorbing the atmosphere then continued on came to the corner I fell off two weeks before, went slow around it, carried on slow and a couple of corners on, there's a RAV4 with its hazard warning lights stopped in my lane going into a LH corner and someone waving to go slow so I slowly go past and there's another two cars up ahead in my lane, a head on collision! there were a bunch of people standing at the side of the road, no-one looked hurt and the cars weren't that badly damaged. I guess maybe the car facing the wrong way was driven by tourists or something and they got confused about what side of the road to be on.
So I rode home, swearing quietly to myself.

Well guess you got lucky eh.Awhile back i almost became a Maui camper decoration over on the West coast,not nice.

[Motu]

If you weren't such a slow rider you might have been able to find out if they were driving on the wrong side of the road or not.Talk about a missed oppurtunaty.

[Mom]

Crazy stuff happens on the road for sure.

Many years ago now I was a passenger in a car that was involved in a 5 car nose to tail accident caused by one driver that should not have been driving. He was elderly and not sure where he was going. He realised he had overshot where he was meant to turn off but instead on continuing up the road aways and turning back, he stopped dead in the middile of the lane. The car following him managed to swerve to avoid, but the rest of us were not so lucky. It was just around a blind bend on an open road.

We came around the corner to see cars all over the show attempting to avoid "POP". We almost stopped. Almost being the operative word. I remember thinking as we were hauling up fast "shit we are going to hit this guy" and we did. Not really hard or big, the sort of shitty thing that would normally involve you exchanging insurance details, apologising for what went down and driving away. However, the next car around the corner had even less room to stop than we did and ploughed into the back of us at 100kph. He admitted he never got his foot to the brakes. It was literally a blind bend, easy to negotiate at 80 kph or better. He hit us, shoved us back into the car we had already tapped, and him into the car in front of him. Our car was very broken!

Cops, fire engines and all sorts arrived, nobody hurt, but 3 cars hauled away on transporters. We had one straight panel, the passengers side, rear door, the car looked like a banana really, even the roof was bent, seats broken the works.

We got a ticket for failing to stop in the distance given and got a $75 infringement for the pleasure. Even the cop agreed it was a bit unfair, we had no warning eh.

What this showed me, and has coloured my driving/riding ever since is...

There by the grace of God go I, and shit can happen anytime, anywhere. All we can do is attempt to mitigate the obvious dangers best we can, and hope for the best the rest of the time. If it is going to happen it will.

Take care out there!