Saved by a Cager

[blkparade]

Hey all, hope everyone is doing okay. I am due to a cager. O.K. here's the explanation. Exiting an expressway I catch the Red light. The exit is a 3 lane. It has 2-Left turn lanes and 1-Right turn lane. No straight. I am in the Right turn lane and am the 3rd vehicle back. There are a few cars in each of the Left turn lanes. The Light goes green and everyone starts forward. I am about Three Quarters through my turn looking forward because another intersection with stopped cars comes up quickly. When I hear a crunch of metal. I literally for a split second take stock of myself and realize I am still up on two and finishing my turn. As I look in my mirrors I see two cars sitting in the roadway, the conclusion of one cager blowing the light and striking one of the cars turning left. My point behind the entire story if it weren't for the car turning left, the Jack@$$ who blew the light had me dead in his sights. Was kinda of a surreal moment. Not sure I could of done anything differently. I try to analyze what happened and I looked left before my turn even though I had a green light. My view left was obstructed by the cars turning left, but I still try think of what I should of done differently and I feel I did it right for the most part but who knows. I do know I am a fortunate person. I realize it doesn't compare to those of you who have crashed but that was my Ohhh S%#t moment to date with only 2 months on a Motorcycle in my life.
As a side note, I'm not trippin from this. I am not sure if that should concern me or that's a good thing. I learned a little something from it and hopefully that is what I should remember.

 

[wrightme43]

blocker car saves the day. LOL good deal for you.

 

[Jman]

Glad you had someone up there looking out for you!

 

[cv_rider]

We've all seen the YouTubes of people blowing reds and wiping someone out, it hits a bit closer to home when its happening to one of Our Gang here. That gives me the heebie-jeebies. I sometimes lane split through lines of stopped cars at intersections, so I can get ahead of the crowd when the light is green. This type of thing is one of my main worries about that.

 

[AJ_rider]

Glad you're okay Blk! I'm not sure what you could've done differently...

 

[jmerch44]

it's a good thing you weren't turning left! glad your alright. keep ridin'.

 

[08fz6]

would agree i dont think there really is anything diff that you could do....as far as the guy running the light hopefully he loses his license.....if it is an area that is that busy should have been paying attention much more, for a light to turn green he had a red for a few secs.... thats special... one reason i wait a few secs before i take off

 

[abraxas]

Damn ... your angel put some hours in today ....

Most likely there was nothing you could have done. That's how fast it happens though, to me all you can do is try stop the panic. Act fast and natural ...

 

[lattin25]

Glad you got the cager as your lead blocker! Well imo i dont think you could have done anything differently. I almost witnessed a head on the other day with something similar to this. A very large intersection with turn lanes across the whole thing. Turn lanes went green and a car that was going straight took off through the red. If the driver who was turning wasn't paying attention they would have had a nasty crash. I always keep an eye on every car I can when I'm entering an intersection, never know if someone is going to mistake the turn green for the straight green.

 

[lonesoldier84]

madness.

i had a somewhat similar moment in a car myself once. car gets hit and starts coming directly at us at a high speed as its path was altered by the collision....but it hits a massive street pole that fortunately happened to be in front of us that we didnt see until the car hit it because our focus was on the car. on a bike like that it would have been X 1000 no doubt. madness.

great to hear ur ok though. that stuff gives everyone the "heeby jeebies" cuz it is out of ur control.

 

[grumpy1luvs2eat]

Great! You did not get hit, that's always good. Drive defensibly, always assume somebody out there has you in thier sights. Looking behind you at intersections is a good way to avoid being involved in an incident. Look out for yourself at all times, assume that nobody is paying attention to you, and you'll get through each trip.GRUMPY

 

[MisterX]

Glad to hear that you're ok and didn't get hit. I personally despise red light runners (I hope that those of you reading this aren't one). Especially since it was a red light runner that ended my riding for 12 years. Regardless, it sounds like you did all you could do in this situation, and luckily, you didn't have to do anything at all.

X

 

[ChromeX]

Put this experience in the mental so similar types of intersections you will pay just a little more attention and hopefully avoid all this. Could you have done something "if" the car had not blocked the red light runner? Maybe, if you looked as best you could then the only other thing might be your position in the lane as you were making the right turn i.e. stay at far right so maybe the runner would have somewhere else to go besides into the back of you?
I always make mental notes when something happens me or someone else and say what would have been the best way to avoid this again, etc...etc...
It's sort of sick but I talk to myself each and every ride...how many times did I die i.e. didn't see that muffler, got into that corner to fast and ran wide....
Fortunately I don't die that many times lately... maybe all the years and miles under my belt, I have many mental notes and really because of all the years and miles I've SLOWED DOWN! I've made the transition to "Mortality"!
Ed

 

[PlasticPig]

Running red lights seems to be a popular pastime here.

Florida driving laws..

Green light = Stop just before the intersection to work out which way you want to turn or to move over to the correct lane that you should have been in long before you got to the intersection.

Amber light = Accelerate

Red Light = Only stop if the person ion front of you has done so or if there is a cop car behind you.

Red to Green Change = Continue your conversation on your cell phone until the car behind reminds you that it is time to move, then hold up all the traffic as you change into the lane you should have been in.

Also, On Ramps or Off Ramps, the end of the ramp should be treated as a challenge to see how many people you can cut up as you could not be bothered to get into the correct lane in advance.

 

[Sawblade]

Wow, that's nuts. Did you wait for the police to come so you could defend the car that blocked for you?

 

[Tailgate]

Blkparade: Was it the first car out in one of the two left-turn lanes that got whacked (I imagine that it was). Obviously, there wasn't a queue started yet in the other direction..or was there??? Anyway, glad to hear about the car beside you protecting you from the crash! Whenever I'm first at a light and in the right lane and if I can't see (whether in cage or on bike) to the left due to the vehicle on my side in the next lane blocking my view, I let this car go first so, if there is a red light runner, either the driver will not proceed (because a good defensive driver is behind the wheel) or his/her vehicle will absorb most of the impact from the vehicle running the red. In my view, it sounds like you didn't do anything wrong but maybe one (or several) of the cars in the left turn lanes DID (by not looking for a possible red light runner) but then, maybe it would've turned worse for you, huh?

 

[fast blue one]

a lucky escape, glad you're OK

 

[PlasticPig]

Blkparade: Was it the first car out in one of the two left-turn lanes that got whacked (I imagine that it was). Obviously, there wasn't a queue started yet in the other direction..or was there??? Anyway, glad to hear about the car beside you protecting you from the crash! Whenever I'm first at a light and in the right lane and if I can't see (whether in cage or on bike) to the left due to the vehicle on my side in the next lane blocking my view, I let this car go first so, if there is a red light runner, either the driver will not proceed (because a good defensive driver is behind the wheel) or his/her vehicle will absorb most of the impact from the vehicle running the red. In my view, it sounds like you didn't do anything wrong but maybe one (or several) of the cars in the left turn lanes DID (by not looking for a possible red light runner) but then, maybe it would've turned worse for you, huh?

Technically the car would not have done anything wrong by not looking for the red light runner, it is the car that ran the lights that is totally and completely to blame but I agree that is would be prudent for them to be aware. The trouble is that any red light runners I have seen have been going stupidly fast so there may not have been a lot of warning.

When I was in the UK they were starting to introduce a camera system that was triggered when a car ran a red light.

IMHO introducing that system and banning the use of cell phones when driving would reduce accidents here dramatically.

 

[reiobard]

glad that you are alright, chalk this one up to the right place at the right time for you and the wrong place at the wrong time for your blocker.

 

[Tailgate]

PlasticPig: You don't have red light cameras yet? Wow! They've been around here for probaby 5-10 years. Whopping $357 or so fine. But---and this is a big "but"!---they only work for left turn lights! Before the cameras, I once counted 7---no kidding---vehicles proceed AFTER the light turned red. People who were already queued in the other directions would just have to wait out the rude and discourteous drivers. Of course, there was the possibility of a major accident and not just pissed off motorists waiting even though they had a green. Red light cameras have drastically halted this practice. However, NOW, programmers are making it so people who don't do a complete 100% stop before right turn are getting the same hefty fine as blowing through a red light. There's a lot of uproar now over this new enforcement action because doing a less dangerous infraction such as a non-complete stop right-hand turn shouldn't merit the same fine as blowing through a red light. Some jurisdictions are now pulling back on this practice because of the backlash...people asserting that such camera enforcement is more a revenue cash cow than a safety issue.