OGR As I have got older and my ability changed, with more traffic on the road, and especially older slower drivers who pull out in front of anything let alone a bike, I think my riding has changed a little, but not because of the video. I have all ready played in my head how I would have been riding in that situation, not sure it might have saved me though. It is partly pure luck you are in the wrong place at that time what ever speed you are traveling.
Loz a junction has black spots in vision, especially door pillars, not like you are pointing and looking up the road ahead before you cross over it.
It more likely to be a misjudgement of speed. Something travelling at 100mph is going to reach you in about half the time of something travelling at 60mph. When glancing, the way your brain works is by taking a snap shot of your field of vision and this is why it can be difficult to interpret speed.
Because I cannot understand why you think the car should not see the bike. I think the gap now days is huge between the younger driving generation of car drivers, and lack of experience of speed, and driving at speed, understanding of speed, compared to Bike Riders and older car drivers who have driven excessively at speed over a long period of time of their life. I also think many drivers just assume that they could not, would not, have not driven at speed, just assume no one else should, or could. I am seeing more and more situations similar (thank god not the same outcome but so easy could be seriuos) almost on a daily basis where cars just pull out and hope for the best, due to traffic volume, frustration, bad judgment, and a lot of just pure selfishness, and it is just too easy to use the excuse I did not see something. I think far too many drivers get far too easily distracted in situations like this
What's really required here as an antidote to this is a poor mother somewhere to release a video of her son being cut up and killed at a t junction whilst the son was travelling at the speed limit or less.
Speed kills........ Yes and sorry for repeating myself but if you were pedestrian waiting to cross the road, would you see a bike coming towards you doing a ton ?
Headlight. Be interesting to k ow if the accidents at junctions stat has changed since most bikes have daylight running
Well yes I would but then I wouldn't have my head phones in or my face stuck in a phone so I can't speak for everybody.
Me personally Clueless possible, but that is due to my experience of knowing how bikes can be ridden, and the understanding of speed, but also ask yourself if you are driving / riding at 100 mph how far down the road can you see to see if someone is crossing the road. I know I can see far enough to be able to slow down / avoid it.
Bradders when I started riding again a few years ago on a new STR so default was head lights on, I was shocked and appalled how many cars lorry's pulled out of junctions in front of me, even to the point I had to almost stop in lorries cases, and in all types of speed zones including 30MPH while doing 30MPH. I was told to try and ride with High Beam on, and it went to almost no one pulling out in front of me. The one thing I like about the MS is the low beam day light is bright as you well know and makes a difference even friends on other bikes say they can see me behind them even when way behind.
Its not the brightness. Its that a light, and no body like a car, cant be tracked by the human eye so gauging speed is incredibly difficult. Its only my theory.
Maybe Bradders, but in this case a car was behind, not that far behind, I am sure I read he said he did not see the car either. I did read a very good article about how eyes work, and why car drivers state/do not see bikes, but I think it generally only really applies to T junctions where you are turning your head left and right and amount of time you look and blink.
As I said, situationally, I can see how a driver pulling out of a side road may not see an oncoming vehicle travelling substantially faster than the speed limit. The driver, having checked that the way is clear, is now focussing (and rightly so) on what is front of him. Meanwhile, the buffer zone that the driver has allowedfor any vehicle approaching the junction at the speed limit, or even the speed limit plus 10%, is unexpectedly shrunk by reason of the oncoming vehicle approaching at, say 66% over the speed limit. I will step away from any argument on who's right, who's wrong in that situation. Ensuring that the car driver allows a buffer zone based upon the speed limit plus 66% may cut down on accidents of this sort but what if the oncoming vehicle is approaching at twice the speed limit? Go too far down this road and you will have a situation in which there is no "safe" way for a driver to ever join a main road from a side road. In other words, inexperienced drivers are not as good at judging the speed of oncoming traffic as experienced drivers. No argument here I see this too. I see drivers acting as unofficial "pace cars", they seem to make it their mission to prevent people from exceeding some mysteriously chosen speed limit. Drivers who ignore the very possibility that someone might be travelling faster than some arbitrary limit. Agreed.
There are numerous 'dashcam' video fatalities you can see on the internet, not that I watch them, so do the police and family releasing this think it will change attitudes? It won't change me or 80% who watch it. You learn by your own experiences, usually bad, not by others misfortunes. As I've got older (57) I've learnt, sometimes painfully. Another video of someone being killed doesn't affect me because I won't watch it. Take care out there, it's dangerous. Otherwise sell the bike, take up gardening and get a nice comfy pair of slippers and be bored to death rather than living.
Loz If the bike had been on its own so many thing change, but remember on a straight road, assuming you are looking up you see a car coming towards you, and you should see a bike overtaking the car why would you think you have time to cross a junction? remember car was overtaken after the sign and in the zig zag zone, in the video it may look a long way away from the junction but it is not. Even if the bike had not been there the car still should not have crossed and turned in front of the car coming towards him, let alone the bike. Regarding your last point oh that happened to me for 10 miles, car pulled out on Dual C made me slow down and then he tried to go faster as would not pull over, even when nothing in the inside lane, and still not pull over he got angrier and angrier even had a kid in the car, waving his fist when all he had to do was move over, he was not driving the speed I was when I caught him up, but was happy to drive 20 MPH faster when I was following him, just cannot understand why anyone would want someone following them for no reason, I was not even that close.
I wasn't trying to argue specifics of this particular case. I mentioned the idea of things being probably true in particular situations (i.e. I used the word "situationally"). For all I know, your assessment above is completely correct in this particular instance. That car driver will hopefully be among the first to get points on his licence under the new regs regarding lane-hogging, etc.
There is a whole section on Junctions in Roadcraft that every biker should read and understand. Whilst the biker was there to be seen by the car driver he was largely responsible for his own tragic death. Junctions are dangerous places.
If we expect other road users to do the right thing and act rationally then we are giving up a significant chunk of responsibility for our own safety, which makes incidents like this much more likely. Sympathy for the guy's family, but he is dead.
