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Carpool lane insurgents almost killed me.

V

vonlyf

New member
Joined
May 2, 2007
Location
Oakland
Moto(s)
FSC-600
There I am on Valentines day cruising from the 92 onto the 880N and merging into the carpool lane at about 50 mph... it WAS clear but WHOAH... some ass ALONE in a silver bullet car is now bearing down on me trying to beat me in the carpool lane.

He had come from the "legal" lane and was making time around the clog in front.

TOO LATE for me, cause instead of blending nicely into the CP lane I am now forced to swerve sharply back into 2nd. lane from median WHICH HAS STOPPED and WHAM...right into the back of a purple honda.

The bike (Silverwing scooter) went ass up to about 45° and tried to eject me over the bars and car I hit but my hips and groin hit the steering mass and, well, stopped me cold.

In either that action or hitting the ground from 6' in the air I broke my pelvic bone in 5 places, my pubic bone (stop gigglinig it AIN't funny) my coccyx and some other shit, including soft tissue damage that, 8 weeks on is totally a pain to deal with.

CHP Said I was going too fast for conditions, I countered that merging into the CP lane at 25 miles an hour was suicide and he simply stood up and pointed at me and said... "What's this then?"

... sigh...

it really took the steam out of me, I had major balls on bay area freeways, the insurance adjuster who declared the bike totalled told me he'd never seen a scooter with that many miles on it (enough to deduct $2500 from the insurance settlement) and I told him of driving for 3 years daily from here to SJ and back.

Anyway, I think I've had it with Bay Area freeways, there are simply too many really dangerous idiots out there and I do really love my life after all!

I have ridden for over 40 years and this is the worst crack up I've had. Only one other (before helmet laws) was more scary when my head wound up under the wheel of a Samuai!

Watch Yer Six... that is where danger lies!
 
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Sit on a bike... havn't tried.

Have not tried sittin on a Bike again, spreading my legs enough to get on is painful. It will be probably june or so before I even think about it. Thanks...
 
Here's the way I read the situation: Someone is coming up fast on your six, and you're going 25 mph faster than the traffic next to you. The speed difference is too great to change lanes. The driver behind you probably sees you, but you can't be sure. That leaves you with a few options. The first is try to change lanes before you get run over, and pray that your brakes can stop you. That's the one I think that you did, and I guess the brakes couldn't stop you in time.

The 2nd option would be to hope that he sees you and slow down to make a safe lane change. Tapping your brake light would help warn him that you're stopping, and straddling the botts dots would encourage him to share the lane past you instead of running you over.

The 3rd option that I can think of would be to go faster until you hit some traffic and then change lanes. I'm not sure how fast the guy was going or how fast your scooter can go, though. The GSX-R would've eaten that douche for breakfast, but I don't know about your scooter.

Either way you're in danger, but I would've definitely reacted differently than you did. Sounds like the situation really caught you off your guard.
 
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OK a couple of things about your options...

1. I was going with traffic... 50 mph, blending left
2. The silver car was NOT in the carpool lane but 1 second later, I saw him pull into it from traffic behind which was moving probably 65.
3. When he saw me heading into the CP lane, which is just where I saw him, he was doing +/- 70... but his front end CAME UP as he rammed the throttle down. He obviously wanted to beat me, and had a 20 MPH
advantage on me and was accelerating still.
4. I was watching my ass, not my front. That was probably my worst error. The 50 mph traffic kept up ALL EXCEPT FOR the 2nd lane over, where I wound up, which had stopped. If I had been watching the front better and concerned less with merging into the carpool lane, I could have either slowed in time or changed lanes RIGHT to #3 and then moved back over when it was safe.
5. My FSC-600, while a scooter, has virtually beaten every car stupid enough to put me on or make me proove it. I just plain did not have room to gun it.

When I looked back forward, the stopped car was about 40 feet in front of me... and again I'm doing 50 or so. Just no room. BANG.
 
...and just so you all know, you relive this crap OVER and OVER and OVER in your head, like you can some how correct the fuck up and be OK again.

It's like shell shock or Delayed Stress Syndrome. I still see that fucking bumper coming at me like a fast ball at candlestick!
 
ow...sucks but be glad you're to tell the tale. Cop sounds really sympathetic.
 
Sorry to hear about your accident...here's my question:

Whenever i'm in situations like that, my immediate response is to attempt to split lanes. From what you're saying, the car was...in front of you and swerved out in front of you? Couldn't you have just stayed in your lane? Or was he coming up behind you at +20mph? In which case, wouldn't it be the best idea to get on the gas and try and get out of his way? I have no idea what kind of pickup your scooter is going to have.

Hope you heal up quickly!
 
Let's chalk it all up to this... 40 years of riding, at times daily for months or years on end... I've dodged trucks, sports cars, guys eating with chopsticks, and I really think, eventually, there is a bumper with ALL our names on it. I just had a brain fart at the worst possible moment, couldn't get out no matter what I did and had to eat it. Believe me, if ever there was a rider who felt himself "above" getting whacked it was me... but bravado eventually gets it—like the proverbial gunfighter— by somebody you never even saw. I appreciate all of your comments, but my days of riding Bay Area freeways are over. Just over.
 
no way to split lanes, instead of making your lane change?

anyway that you over reacted to the dude by going all the way into the other lane and into the back of the car in the #2 lane?

to me, a good offense is always the best defense and I don't feel comfortable riding something without the abilty to accelerate quickly while already at freeway speed...

btw, I know it's easy to second guess, I'm just throwing that out there as an alternate perspective.....
 
POSSIBLY I could have split and made it... but splitting
from 50 miles an hour between stopped traffic while dodging a car literally going fast enough to sway me when he went past... well, I just couldn't adjust that quickly. If he had hit me at all, even a swipe, he was going fast enough (and still flooring it) to spin me right off the bike. I again reply, brain fart and just too much obsession with the CP lane.
 
I hope all is well for you, but NEXT time think of this.

IF YOU rear end someone it's YOUR fault. You'd have come out a hell of a lot better had the dude hit you at what would have been a 15 mph impact, not 25+ (your speed difference at time of impact to honda).
 
I've been on that section of freeway before, but I can't picture it in my head. Does it have a shoulder lane on the inside, to the left of lane #1?

It might have been possible to escape into that space and let the car behind you pass by, then make it back on to the road.

It sounds like you had the misfortune of multiple things happening at once to put you in a bad place.
 
Exactly Ryan, like the odds just ran out. As for letting myself be hit at 50 mph in the carpool lane and then eaten up by following cars? Gee thanks Dopesick, but no.
 
Sorry to hear that. Gotta watch out for Osama Bin Carpoolin- he is out to get you. Tough way to end your two wheeled commuting. Give a :twofinger next time you are stuck in your cage, in traffic, in the heat and someone comes lane splitting by- or at least make room.

You could always get a new bike once you are back in one piece - just for weekends - of course...


heal well and beware of HMOs!:teeth
 
Already lusting after a new bike. Geeze what masochism eh? Still can't walk right and I am planning my next big ride!!! thanks Mad... yes, HMO"s suck.
 
... but the Bay Area freeways can just eat it without me!! lol See you on the backroads!
 
Right on, Vonlyf! Reading every post in this thread, I was very pleased to see your last entry to discover you're not giving up the sport entirely.

I commute from Bonny Doon (north of Santa Cruz, in the mountains) to Salinas via Hwy 1, through Prunedale (Prunetucky), 101 South to John Street exit in Salinas...49 miles each way, and I deal with every kind of asshole on my way: students and commuters who cut every fuckin turn on the Smith Grade/Empire Grade portion of my ride, clueless tourists and yet-to-wake-up commuters on hwy 1 southbound, lettuce trucks and school buses full of migrant workers spewing clouds of black smoke out their asses through Prunedale or Castroville, Hispanic chicks riding my ass while driving their 1984 Honda Accords WAY faster than the balloon tires they have should warrant (sorry, but it's true), and Salinas gang-bangers in their fuckin' dumped Dinali's and Excursions, taking whatever lane they feel like, whenever they feel like.

I know we all have our own versions of this shit, but the goal in commuting on the bike was to save time, save gas, and have fun. Well, I either need to give it up or do a huge bong-hit before heading out in the morning, because my blood pressure has jumped significantly over the last couple years of doing this ride.

I don't want to relegate myself to weekends-only, as riding every day keeps my skills sharp. Maybe if I win the lottery I can give up the street and keep it on the track. Until then, I'll keep my eyes open, my speed down and my fingers crossed...
 
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