Never underestimate the stupidity of cagers

[Erci]

So I'm riding home from a grocery store, last night. The weather is absolutely perfect.. about 70 degrees, clear and no wind. I choose to take a little detour to hit few miles of my favorite roads.

Traffic is light and I'm going at a reasonable pace.. maybe 5mph over limit. I'm on a 2-way road (1 lane in each direction, separated by double yellow line). There are a few blind curves to navigate, so I adjust my speed accordingly. Sure enough, as I an apex of a blind right hander, I spot a truck reversing at roughly 15mph directly toward me! I'm not talking about reversing out of a driveway.. this guy is ON the road, in my lane.. reversing into a blind turn! It was also getting dark at this point and he didn't have his lights on

Anyway.. I had plenty of time to straighten up the bike and come to a controlled stop. The truck came to a stop too, shifted into drive and turned off the road into the woods.

Moral of the story: Don't ever relax out there. Continue to apply the SEE principle whenever you ride and never underestimate the stupidity (ignorance, really) of cagers.

 

[rsw81]

So I'm riding home from a grocery store, last night. The weather is absolutely perfect.. about 70 degrees, clear and no wind. I choose to take a little detour to hit few miles of my favorite roads.

Traffic is light and I'm going at a reasonable pace.. maybe 5mph over limit. I'm on a 2-way road (1 lane in each direction, separated by double yellow line). There are a few blind curves to navigate, so I adjust my speed accordingly. Sure enough, as I an apex of a blind right hander, I spot a truck reversing at roughly 15mph directly toward me! I'm not talking about reversing out of a driveway.. this guy is ON the road, in my lane.. reversing into a blind turn! It was also getting dark at this point and he didn't have his lights on

Anyway.. I had plenty of time to straighten up the bike and come to a controlled stop. The truck came to a stop too, shifted into drive and turned off the road into the woods.

Moral of the story: Don't ever relax out there. Continue to apply the SEE principle whenever you ride and never underestimate the stupidity (ignorance, really) of cagers.

Glad you had the instincts to handle the situation appropriately and new that at dusk you will have the worst visibility as some vehicles with have lights on and some won't, thus keeping a reasonable speed. This truck driver needs to have his head examined.

 

[mrphotoman]

Wow that is scary, rednecks do that crap around here all the time. They also like to stop in the middle of the road when they see another goober in a truck passing by in the other direction they know and park right there in the road to chat regardless if there are cars behind them or if they are in a curve. amazing.............

 

[Sweeney_Todd]

Moral of the story: Don't ever relax out there. Continue to apply the SEE principle whenever you ride and never underestimate the stupidity (ignorance, really) of cagers.

Don't say. Last time I went for a ride, few hours total on Saturday and Sunday, I got cut off 3 times.
Some people think that car mirrors are some kind of mystical devices, and only God knows the purpose of them.

 

[2006_FZ6]

Glad you had the instincts to handle the situation appropriately and new that at dusk you will have the worst visibility as some vehicles with have lights on and some won't, thus keeping a reasonable speed. This truck driver needs to have his head examined.

Ditto! Ride safe.

 

[Motogiro]

Wow that is scary, rednecks do that crap around here all the time. They also like to stop in the middle of the road when they see another goober in a truck passing by in the other direction they know and park right there in the road to chat regardless if there are cars behind them or if they are in a curve. amazing.............

In Jersey they call them "Pinies". I think they made one of the "X-Files" based on "Pinies" If any of you are X-File buffs you know the one I'm talking about.:spank::spank:
There used to be places in the Pines you could get lost and never found. Especially if you where caught near a still.
Alright! I'll stop the name calling
Actually it's a part of Jersey culture a lot of people never hear about....

Great instincts Erci! That is what part of riding is about! :rockon:

 

[FinalImpact]

Sometimes it's crazy how our intuition works and we're in "advanced warning mode" as if there is clarity on a pending event. . .

On my second real ride the lack of patience on the part of Dodge 4X4 driver had me anchored as the idiot came over the double yellow completely into my lane on corner. I saw the car in front of him brake (but no turn signal) and perhaps because the truck was so tall I saw his approach placed him in position of "unable to stop in time"! Lane violation was 125% on his part but I had the bike stopped and plenty time to provide hand gestures. . . :Flip:

So True! > Never underestimate the stupidity of cagers

 

[FloppyRunner]

OK I'll bite; what's the "SEE" principle? I don't think I've ever heard that one...

 

[outdoorsman]

OK I'll bite; what's the "SEE" principle? I don't think I've ever heard that one...

Search, Evaluate and Execute.

Ignorance I can deal with but when cagers deliberately disobey the laws and traffic signals, that's when I have a real problem with them. I commute to work a few times a week. Every morning when I get on the freeway, I always use the carpool lane on the onramp because the other lane is metered. Sure enough without fail, there's always some jackass runnning the red light deliberately to get onto the freeway. I know it's on purpose because they dont even slow down or brake for it. Even with all the flashing warning lights and the BIG red light on, they still knowingly break the law wrecklessly. Be careful on the onramps!

 

[Zargof]

Search, Evaluate, Execute MSF's main strategy to riding a bike to be safe.

 

[CHEMIKER]

You're frigging kidding me. Glad you were on your alert and avoided trouble.

 

[DownrangeFuture]

I kind of like the lady the other day who just changed lanes without looking. She had been behind me but jumped over to the right-hand lane to go faster, then realizing (of course) the slow lane is going... slow, jumps back into my lane.

I brake hard and wind up nearly missing her back end, thankfully my "biker" senses were on full alert. After I feel I can safely operate the horn, I do so. She jumps back in the slow lane, I guess cause she just realized what she did.

5 minutes later I see her speeding like a banshee behind me, totally freaking me out. Just so she could say sorry. Never underestimate the stupidity of cagers in large groups.

 

[dolau]

I was going to ask what SEE was too

 

[FloppyRunner]

Whoops, guess I need to go back and review that booklet! It was a whopping 4 months ago I took the MSF course... :0

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Did you use your Horn?

Communicate your intentions by leting them know that they are Stupid.

 

[ELIZABETH]

Very glad to hear you are OK. Last night I visited a friend of mine that had a van pull out from a side road onto the state highway as he was approaching at 60mph. Unfortunately he had to drive off the highway to avoid the van. He endo'd for 40 feet, the bike for 50. Fortunately, he was wearing ATGATT (including full leathers). He has a banged up leg, and is generally sore, but nothing broken, and he is still here to talk about it. :thumbup: I'm glad you are too.

 

[Erci]

Did you use your Horn?

Communicate your intentions by leting them know that they are Stupid.

I have to admit that I didn't. I never include horn into my quick-stop practice (one of the reasons being that I practice in a school parking lot across the street from a densely populated development) and as you have mentioned on countless occasions, when it comes to situations like this it's all muscle memory.
It wasn't part of my initial and automatic instinct and by the time I'd come to a full stop, he was already moving forward and off the road.

 

[Erci]

Very glad to hear you are OK. Last night I visited a friend of mine that had a van pull out from a side road onto the state highway as he was approaching at 60mph. Unfortunately he had to drive off the highway to avoid the van. He endo'd for 40 feet, the bike for 50. Fortunately, he was wearing ATGATT (including full leathers). He has a banged up leg, and is generally sore, but nothing broken, and he is still here to talk about it. :thumbup: I'm glad you are too.

Wow.. amazing how gear can allow us to walk away from such crashes. Glad he didn't brake any bones or worse.

 

[FIZZER6]

My MSF instructor was an older guy who had been riding on the street some 40 years and never had an accident. When asked how he managed that he said: "Always assume that every vehicle, pedestrian or animal on the road are trying to kill you!"

You don't have to ride paranoid but always expect them to do the unexpected and be constantly thinking of your evasive strategy should they do what you don't expect....

 

[Motogiro]

Very glad to hear you are OK. Last night I visited a friend of mine that had a van pull out from a side road onto the state highway as he was approaching at 60mph. Unfortunately he had to drive off the highway to avoid the van. He endo'd for 40 feet, the bike for 50. Fortunately, he was wearing ATGATT (including full leathers). He has a banged up leg, and is generally sore, but nothing broken, and he is still here to talk about it. :thumbup: I'm glad you are too.

Glad your friend could walk away!