Interesting accident, whose fault should this be?

reeac

I got into a very similar situation about a month ago. I
Was the motorist wishing to exit a side road in East Finchley. A motorist on the main road stopped to let me out (turning right onto the main road) . I pulled out very slowly, looking in both directions but concentrating more on the LHS as traffic coming from that direction was moving freely and therefore at 30mph. Or so. A motorcyclist overtook the stationary cars, skimmed across my bows and shouted at me suggesting that I needed to look both ways. Rerunning the event and discussing it with my wife I could see no other course of action open to me other than to keep waiting at the junction until traffic cleared in both directions (on a weekday morning in London?). Stopping to let someone out is, in my view, a very useful aid to smooth traffic flow and preventing jams - it would be a pity if the combined wisdom of bikers and the Law suppressed it.

JustinR1979

reeac wrote: »

I got into a very similar situation about a month ago. I
Was the motorist wishing to exit a side road in East Finchley. A motorist on the main road stopped to let me out (turning right onto the main road) . I pulled out very slowly, looking in both directions but concentrating more on the LHS as traffic coming from that direction was moving freely and therefore at 30mph. Or so. A motorcyclist overtook the stationary cars, skimmed across my bows and shouted at me suggesting that I needed to look both ways. Rerunning the event and discussing it with my wife I could see no other course of action open to me other than to keep waiting at the junction until traffic cleared in both directions (on a weekday morning in London?). Stopping to let someone out is, in my view, a very useful aid to smooth traffic flow and preventing jams - it would be a pity if the combined wisdom of bikers and the Law suppressed it.

He was overtaking at a junction.
A car wouldn't do this as it's wrong and dangerous.

Joe_Horner

Strider590 wrote: »

[...] what gets me is the tribal mentality of car drivers, all sticking together and only because they hate bikers, coming out with the usual BS stereotypes and nonsense arguments (like queue jumping)......... It's no different at all to actual racism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DahkwAsth-o

You mean it's no different to perceived racism.

That biker is an autopsy waiting to happen if he rides like that all the time, and that has nothing to do with whether he's on a bike or in a car. It's to do with his obvious lack of road sense.

I get a fair bit of stick at times for suggesting that anyone involved in an accident is partly to blame, because there's almost always something any party could have done to prevent it regardless of the idiocy of others.

In this case, the car driver could have avoided it, so has to take some blame. But the idiocy at the root of it was the person who overtook, too fast and in inappropriate circumstances. That would apply whether he was on a motorbike, car, pushbike or even running!

bod1467

Strider590 wrote: »

I'm not disputing that the biker will be held at least partially to blame, but what gets me is the tribal mentality of car drivers, all sticking together and only because they hate bikers, coming out with the usual BS stereotypes and nonsense arguments (like queue jumping)......... It's no different at all to actual racism. People think it's ok to attack a minority group because they feel like they can get away with it.

When you're in a hole, it's usually a good idea to stop digging.

sh0597

I do think it would go 50/50 as the driver isn't proceeding with care while the motorcyclist also isn't proceeding with care. They could both have avoided the accident.

JustinR1979

sh0597 wrote: »

I do think it would go 50/50 as the driver isn't proceeding with care while the motorcyclist also isn't proceeding with care. They could both have avoided the accident.

How would it be 50/50 when one's making a legal manoeuvre and one isn't, when one is going very slowly and one very fast?

Strider590

After last weeks argument about blind spots and always moving your head to check surroundings, I'm finding quite a large amount of hypocrisy going on here

Pulling out of that driveway/sideroad/junction, I would have glanced left, moved forward, stopped, glanced left, glance right, THEN moved off.

The driver in this case wasn't even looking in the direction he was travelling.......

Two people, not paying attention, this is the result.

JustinR1979

Well you would look more to where the traffic is moving, not the way the traffic has stopped.
As the traffic had stopped, you wouldn't expect some suicidal nobhead to overtake.

Joe_Horner

Changing the subject slightly, to other traffic in the video. If you watch very carefully (slomo helps) then you can see that the first oncoming car takes around 2 seconds to show any reaction in terms of slowing.

He misses the biker by a long way, so no real problem, but it does highlight how slowly people process unexpected incidents on the road. Fairly low speed, he had plenty of opportunity to see both the biker on his side of the road and the car pulling across, yet it takes 2 seconds to start (effective) braking after the collision happens.

If asked, he'd probably swear blind that he reacted instantly. Something well worth thinking about for all those who're convinced they have good reactions

sh0597

JustinR1979 wrote: »

How would it be 50/50 when one's making a legal manoeuvre and one isn't, when one is going very slowly and one very fast?

Both are legal, neither are going fast.