close call

[tcmalker]

Last night on my way to work I had a very close call.

http://contour.com/stories/close-call--4

This a-hole decided to make a u-turn from a park lane. I was going to go around him on the left at first but once I realize he wasn't going to stop I swerved hard to the right and just made it. I'm really proud of myself that I didn't panicked and locked up the brakes or wiping out. :Flash:

Then I almost hit that damn pedestrian jay-walking.

Edited** can anyone tell me how to embed the video??

 

[novaks47]

That happens too often around here! That happened to me once while riding to work at night, only the car was MUCH closer, and I had no choice but to pin the throttle(this was on my TW200), and swerve around the front of the moron. It was either that, or crash into the side of the car.

What video set up are you using? The quality looks very good.

 

[Botch]

Glad you're okay and kept her shiny-side-up! :thumbup:

 

[LERecords]

good to hear your ok.. yea it sucks, but sometimes you have to take your time for other idiots.. at least no crash :thumbup:

 

[JTL]

That was close, glad you didn't hit him! What was your speed at the moment? Judging by the video, it seems quite high for those conditions.

 

[FB400]

Dude it didn't look like you braked at all. S.E.E means look for danger and react to it

 

[VEGASRIDER]

From viewing your video:

It's your fault for placing yourself in such a poor position on the roadway for bad things to happen. What do you expect when you are travelling down the right lane, where there are parked cars & pedestrians? You had two lanes to select from, you must decide which lane and which position within the lane that will provide you with the least risk.

If it was me, I would have chosen the left lane, maybe not going so fast, but maybe the video distorts the speeds. Yes, cars are proned to take a left hander in front of the motorcyclist but at least they will be directly in front of you so you should see them in the left turn lane well ahead before it gets to the point where you may have to brake or swerve.

I will have to say, great job on swerving! But it should have never gotten to that point. Travelling in the left lane, possibly on the left side and anticipitating that something like that may happen would have required you to possibly just use your horn? But you also still had an escape lane by swerving into the left turn lane, or brake since you would have had a buffer zone to react.

This was a great illustration why motorcycles end up T-boning a car despite being technically not their fault.

Thanks for posting.

 

[tcmalker]

I'm not proud of it, but to be completely honest, I was going 60+. The reason I was going that fast is because the light coming up is a red light camera. I didn't want to get there with it turning yellow and having to decide whether to slam on the brakes or accelerate through it. I was completely wrong to do that. Something about red light camera make me act more aggressively than usual.

I did not brake at all because from my MSF training (yes I took MSF!) I knew the better action was to swerve. Thank god last second I decide to swerve back to the right. Swerving to the left was not a good idea for 2 reasons. One reason is the car was heading that way and the other is that on coming traffic is coming toward me too.

For my video setup see:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/safety-equipment/33761-review-scorpion-exo900-contourhd-1080p.html

 

[JTL]

Your mileage may vary, but I for one wouldn't post admitted reckless driving videos on the web and brag about hazardous driving habits. Sure, the car did wrong, but driving within the speed limits I guess you could have stopped before the car.

 

[tcmalker]

Your mileage may vary, but I for one wouldn't post admitted reckless driving videos on the web and brag about hazardous driving habits. Sure, the car did wrong, but driving within the speed limits I guess you could have stopped before the car.

Nobody was bragging here my friend. I don't think 60kph is that fast!

 

[DefyInertia]

Can't view the video from here but thanks for posting. What street in Chicago were you on? Chicago is definitely a dangerous place to ride.

From viewing your video:

It's your fault for placing yourself in such a poor position on the roadway for bad things to happen. What do you expect when you are travelling down the right lane, where there are parked cars & pedestrians? You had two lanes to select from, you must decide which lane and which position within the lane that will provide you with the least risk.

If it was me, I would have chosen the left lane, maybe not going so fast, but maybe the video distorts the speeds. Yes, cars are proned to take a left hander in front of the motorcyclist but at least they will be directly in front of you so you should see them in the left turn lane well ahead before it gets to the point where you may have to brake or swerve.

I will have to say, great job on swerving! But it should have never gotten to that point. Travelling in the left lane, possibly on the left side and anticipitating that something like that may happen would have required you to possibly just use your horn? But you also still had an escape lane by swerving into the left turn lane, or brake since you would have had a buffer zone to react.

This was a great illustration why motorcycles end up T-boning a car despite being technically not their fault.

Thanks for posting.

This is the type of incident analysis I like to see :thumbup:

Your mileage may vary, but I for one wouldn't post admitted reckless driving videos on the web and brag about hazardous driving habits. Sure, the car did wrong, but driving within the speed limits I guess you could have stopped before the car.

I must have missed the bragging part.

 

[JTL]

Nobody was bragging here my friend. I don't think 60kph is that fast!

Judging by your location I was thinking 60+ mph...

 

[VEGASRIDER]

I don't think 60kph is that fast!

It's fast enough to get you killed!

The only good thing that came out of this incident is you have proven to yourself that you have the ability to make the correct split second decision whether to swerve or brake. I guarantee you that many riders would have done the opposite by panicking and try to grab a handful of brakes, maybe lowsiding and end up T-boning the car. Happens all the time.

But again, let this be a lesson learned that you could definately improve on your riding strategy. Select the proper lane, position and speed, give yourself more outs by creating a buffer zone

 

[tcmalker]

Judging by your location I was thinking 60+ mph...

Hmmm, let me try that again....I don't think going 60 kph is that fast.
Again, no bragging here. Just want to share my experience with you all. This is another wake up call and will be in the back of my mind for a very long time. To be honest, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought I was a goner for sure. Good thing the car decided to move up some. He could have been like deer caught in the headlights and that would sux.

Chicago is not the best place to ride a motorcycle, especially one with a crappy suspension like the FZ6. Just saying.

 

[RJ2112]

Hmmm, let me try that again....I don't think going 60 kph is that fast.
Again, no bragging here. Just want to share my experience with you all. This is another wake up call and will be in the back of my mind for a very long time. To be honest, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought I was a goner for sure. Good thing the car decided to move up some. He could have been like deer caught in the headlights and that would sux.

Chicago is not the best place to ride a motorcycle, especially one with a crappy suspension like the FZ6. Just saying.

The biggest piece of safety equipment on a bike, is the ~ 7lbs of fat at the top of the operator's neck. Failure to apply that MOST critical tool, will result in all sorts of issues.

Learning curves for riders are typically pretty steep. Most of the time, when the rider makes excuses for the ongoing series of incidents they become involved in, it's mainly their fault. Just sayin. If you are in the habit of making excuses for stupid behavior, you'll most likely blame whoever it is that you force into hitting you, and will most probably stop riding after that.

If you've been through MSF, they told you about blind spots, and high threat situations. You obviously did not take what you were taught to heart.

Please wake up and smell the coffee.

 

[tcmalker]

The biggest piece of safety equipment on a bike, is the ~ 7lbs of fat at the top of the operator's neck. Failure to apply that MOST critical tool, will result in all sorts of issues.

Learning curves for riders are typically pretty steep. Most of the time, when the rider makes excuses for the ongoing series of incidents they become involved in, it's mainly their fault. Just sayin. If you are in the habit of making excuses for stupid behavior, you'll most likely blame whoever it is that you force into hitting you, and will most probably stop riding after that.

If you've been through MSF, they told you about blind spots, and high threat situations. You obviously did not take what you were taught to heart.

Please wake up and smell the coffee.

Sorry to be defensive here, but I know what kind of rider I am (aggressive) and will not blame others for causing an accident if it's my fault. The last (& first) accident I was involved in a motorcle, which happened just over a month ago, I was struck by an SUV who was distracted and stated he didn't see me. Completely his fault by admission and caught on video. The guy in this video obviously is wrong for doing an illegal u-turn. If I would have T-boned this guy, I'm sure his lawyer would mention something about me alledgedly speeding. I would give it 75-25% liability on him.

In conclusion, I blame everything on the red light camera.

 

[LERecords]

most of us have been there at one time or another.. going to fast.. something happens.. and then after we learn to slow down a bit.. at least tc is giving us an honest assesment of what happened and how it can be avoided for the next time.. good reminder to newbies and the people who have ridden for a while to slow down and pay attention to whats going on around you... :thumbup:

 

[jtarkany]

Glad you are ok :thumbup: Looks like a driver training video, all that's missing is a kid chasing his ball into the street

 

[Kazza]

I thought you were MPH in the US.

Also, no good doing 60 if the speed limit is below.

You've had a few scares lately on your bike - we'd like to see you ride safe.

 

[RJ2112]

Sorry to be defensive here, but I know what kind of rider I am (aggressive) and will not blame others for causing an accident if it's my fault. The last (& first) accident I was involved in a motorcle, which happened just over a month ago, I was struck by an SUV who was distracted and stated he didn't see me. Completely his fault by admission and caught on video. The guy in this video obviously is wrong for doing an illegal u-turn. If I would have T-boned this guy, I'm sure his lawyer would mention something about me alledgedly speeding. I would give it 75-25% liability on him.

In conclusion, I blame everything on the red light camera.

It all fits into a quote pilots use. The similarity to riding is crystal clear.

"There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots..... but there are no old, bold, pilots."

Riding is far more mental than physical. You don't seem to understand that yet. I sincerely hope you survive long enough to figure this out.

I'll ride fast; the trick is to only ride as fast as you have space to stop in. Accelerating into an intersection as the light goes yellow is not so much a bad decision, as a very poorly calculated risk.

If you get it wrong, you pay far more than the other driver will. There's no advantage to being dead right. You're still dead.

You need to anticipate what ALL the drivers around you may do, and have a plan to deal with each scenario. An escape plan for each.

If you want to go faster, you need to be smoother, and that comes from seeing further ahead of your current position so you can PLAN. Reacting is bad planning.

Lane position is all about seeing and being as much as possible. Crossing traffic in an intersection is unlikely as all get out to take the time to look both ways 3 times, to pick you up and avoid contact. That falls on you.