My Steibel Horn Saved My Life Today

[VEGASRIDER]

And my ability to Swerve!

Without both, I wouldn't be posting.

An impatient Taxi waiting at a red light pulled out of a left turn lane.

Search: Coming off a red light at an intersection in the left lane out of three going in the same direction, I noticed two vehicles up ahead at the next intersection , one which was a taxi waiting to turn left to enter the on ramp onto a freeway at a red left turn light on a overpass.

Evaluate: Knowing that I have accelerated quickly coming out of a red light I knew I have made separation with the traffic behind me and anything to my right was open. I noticed that I have a green light up ahead while the left turning vehicles still have the red. But I noticed that the walk signal was still on. I noticed the Taxi in the left turn lane. I knew that this intersection has a very long rotation, and the Taxi driver probaly knew that too. So I was anticipating that he may pull out an go thru the intersection on the green and flip a U-turn. That was my plan too, so I remained in the left lane but I was anticipating a worse case scenario of What IF?

Execute: The speed limit is 45mph and I was probably going 50 approaching the green light. The Taxi pulled out of the left turn lane almost at a 90 degree angles since it was so close behind another vehcile and started to enter my lane. I hit my horn and swerved at the same time. The horn stopped the Taxi's forward progress, my swerve avoided the collision. I never braked, never rolled off the throttle. I kept on going, no road rage.

In this particular incident, I truly believe these corrective measures would have resulted in a crash.

1. Braking = crash (not enough stopping distance)

2. Swerving without using horn ( horn stopped Taxi's forward progress) = crash

3. Using horn without swerving ( would have hit Taxi as it was in path of travel.

Horn and Swerving. Needed to apply both to avoid this one.

Yes, I could have switched to the middle lane, giving me a buffer lane but what fun what that be, I wouldn't be able to use my HORN! I'm sure it was quite a show for the folks behind me.

I love my horn.

 

[lytehouse]

Yes, I could have switched to the middle lane, giving me a buffer lane but what fun what that be, I wouldn't be able to use my HORN! I'm sure it was quite a show for the folks behind me.

I love my horn.





one day I would like to hear this famous horn! Living in a city like Vegas, I'm sure you need something that'll scare the sh*t outta those crazy taxi drivers!
Scariest ride I've ever been on???
Vegas airport to my hotel! No Lie!
Glad you got out of that one ok.....

 

[Andz]

Good man, well done for keeping your cool and surviving!

 

[Motogiro]

Love that horn! I never heard one before you honked it on the Sept 12th ride and I started looking for a car in our group! LOL! I want one!

Good for you Kenny!

Cliff

 

[08fz6]

ah yes i love mine as well. Sounds like a freakin train coming at you!:rockon: I had a tractor trailer pull out of a rest stop and cut me off one day. I laid on that and he pulled over. I was pissed but got his attention and he clearly showed me he knew he messed up. Was a great feeling that me on my bike had a trucker eating out of the palm of my hand, I travel all over the USA for work and its always the other way around! As others have said glad it worked for you, I myself would have been in that same lane.

 

[Kriswithak]

Good to hear your ok!
The safest corrective action would have been to slow down to make sure you did have braking distance, if the taxi hadn't stopped you would have been in alot of trouble.
As my first instructor said, driving teaches people to take unacceptable risks, as a rider you need to learn not to. Thats where that niggling six sense of what someone 'might' do comes in.
Anyway no points pondering 'what ifs'. Hope you learnt a lesson and don't assume it will always work.

 

[skyjake]

And my ability to Swerve!

Without both, I wouldn't be posting.

An impatient Taxi waiting at a red light pulled out of a left turn lane.

Search: Coming off a red light at an intersection in the left lane out of three going in the same direction, I noticed two vehicles up ahead at the next intersection , one which was a taxi waiting to turn left to enter the on ramp onto a freeway at a red left turn light on a overpass.

Evaluate: Knowing that I have accelerated quickly coming out of a red light I knew I have made separation with the traffic behind me and anything to my right was open. I noticed that I have a green light up ahead while the left turning vehicles still have the red. But I noticed that the walk signal was still on. I noticed the Taxi in the left turn lane. I knew that this intersection has a very long rotation, and the Taxi driver probaly knew that too. So I was anticipating that he may pull out an go thru the intersection on the green and flip a U-turn. That was my plan too, so I remained in the left lane but I was anticipating a worse case scenario of What IF?

Execute: The speed limit is 45mph and I was probably going 50 approaching the green light. The Taxi pulled out of the left turn lane almost at a 90 degree angles since it was so close behind another vehcile and started to enter my lane. I hit my horn and swerved at the same time. The horn stopped the Taxi's forward progress, my swerve avoided the collision. I never braked, never rolled off the throttle. I kept on going, no road rage.

In this particular incident, I truly believe these corrective measures would have resulted in a crash.

1. Braking = crash (not enough stopping distance)

2. Swerving without using horn ( horn stopped Taxi's forward progress) = crash

3. Using horn without swerving ( would have hit Taxi as it was in path of travel.

Horn and Swerving. Needed to apply both to avoid this one.

Yes, I could have switched to the middle lane, giving me a buffer lane but what fun what that be, I wouldn't be able to use my HORN! I'm sure it was quite a show for the folks behind me.

I love my horn.

Our bike has a horn? I seen you talk more about your horn than anyone else. I need to learn to guard it more often and practice using it.

Thanks for sharing another helpful experience...

 

[Tailgate]

Included in one of the top 10 reasons to use/have horn is to WAKE UP motorist sleeping in front of you at light change. Not as important as with Vegasrider's case but, nonetheless, HANDY!

 

[Jman]

I have had this exact same scenario while in my old 69 chevy many years ago.....I knew someone was going to get impatient and just as I moved to the right lane to avoid the IF - someone pulled right out just as I got there not paying any attention. Great post Vegas.:thumbup: This is definitely something to watch out for - even in a four wheeler.

 

[DefyInertia]

Nice work.

I love my horn too.

Can you provide a link to the googe maps street view of the intersection so that we can get a better understanding?

 

[lonesoldier84]

Bah! You've just been oh so horny to use that Stebel I'm almost kind of happy this happened...you finally got to use the damned thing!!

Good to hear you had it under control. A few times over the summer I went through intersections a little bit hotter than might have been advisable. It really makes you shake your head at the guys who literally RIP through intersections though.

 

[cv_rider]

Good to hear your ok!
The safest corrective action would have been to slow down to make sure you did have braking distance, if the taxi hadn't stopped you would have been in alot of trouble.
As my first instructor said, driving teaches people to take unacceptable risks, as a rider you need to learn not to. Thats where that niggling six sense of what someone 'might' do comes in.
Anyway no points pondering 'what ifs'. Hope you learnt a lesson and don't assume it will always work.

Going slower so you had sufficient braking time to avoid this type of situation is not really viable. You must keep traffic speed to avoid rear-ending, and that just doesn't leave time to stop if someone pulls in front of you. This is one of the situations where defensive driving only goes so far, and is the situation covered the MSF phrase I'm sure Kenny knows so well "traffic safety is a shared responsibility." Translation: you can do everything right and still get hosed by an idiot. This is just one of the risks of being on a motorcycle and if you're lucky and skilled like Kenny, you'll ride another day.

My tactics to deal with these situations are:
* I sometimes slow down a little in dicey intersections, but would more likely reduce collision speed and avoid the collision.
* I always ride with high beams on during the day
* I wear a high-vis vest
* Recently did the dual-HID, the things are piercingly bright and hard to miss.
* I've recently become aware of the commonness of the oncoming left turner's view into my lane being obscured by bushes in the median. I somtimes squeeze of a blast from the horn, or at least get ready to do brake.

 

[rabernar]

Wow, Very good outcome -you win, and with your life.

I am impressed that you analyzed the situation as you did. The most important event in the whole sequence was stopping the taxi - it really showed the value of the Stebel horn. The swerve at the end was your riding experience based on great situational experience.

Good post for us all, but especially for me - I bought the horn and haven't installed it yet, but now I'm inspired.

A big thank you.