• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Video of rider hit on 85 yesterday , lane-splitting incident

Hope the rider is OK. I too think the rider bears a big portion of the responsibility.

Last week I saw a rider on 17 splitting with 20mph+ of closure. A car started a lane change w/signal while the rider was 3-4 cars back. The rider arrived at the rear of the lane-changing car when the car was at least half way through the lane change. The rider was irate. Honked, flipped off the car, brake-checked the car, then slowed below the speed limit in front of the car for a few thousand feet.

#makesuslookbad
 
Yeah, not sure how this would play out,

The signal surely was on, but the minimegavan surely did hit the rider.
 
AbsolutEnduser said:
Yeah, not sure how this would play out,

The signal surely was on, but the minimegavan surely did hit the rider.
Click to expand...
Blind spot for the driver?

Thing is with a modern car with warnings in your blind spot is that it was likely alerting that when the turn was initiated by the car the van was pulling in front of.

On my wife's CX5 it will sometimes beep an alert when changing lanes with the signal on even though I can tell I've cleared the slower car safely that I am pulling in front of.
 
Most of the comments on Reddit are pointing towards the motorcyclist. That's not what I expected.
 
Hmmm...rider’s fault, but valid that (1) the sun is behind the SUV so their mirror might have been utterly useless and (2) the SUV did hit them - but the rider appears to have had plenty of time to anticipate the lane change and (c) the driver did signal ahead of time and the rider would not have had the sun issue as they were looking away from it.

Hope they’re ok, that looked like a hell of an impact. :/
 
I find it interesting that a few people mention "The car did hit the motorcycle." Is that to infer responsibility onto the car driver? Placing blame on the striking vehicle never enters my mind. Would a car turning left across a motorcyclists path causing the motorcycle to strike the car mean the motorcyclist is automatically at fault?
 
Enchanter said:
I find it interesting that a few people mention "The car did hit the motorcycle." Is that to infer responsibility onto the car driver? Placing blame on the striking vehicle never enters my mind. Would a car turning left across a motorcyclists path causing the motorcycle to strike the car mean the motorcyclist is automatically at fault?
Click to expand...


Well the motorcyclist seems to be in the other lane hover the white line) in that particular split second when the megaminivan was hell bent on entering the exact same lane.

Enchanter said:
Most of the comments on Reddit are pointing towards the motorcyclist. That's not what I expected.
Click to expand...
Reddit is mostly car drivers isn’t it? Not sure what you expected, last I checked they blamed the motorcyclist , solely and specifically

___
In addition, it looks like there are plenty of comments, alluding to to the good ol’ “whoever has the blinker on has the right of way”:
That vehicle had their blinker on for 3-5 business days. Their intention was completely clear.
Click to expand...
 
This bolsters the argument other states have against lane splitting. Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's safe. As Blankpage says - it's your own risk.

Can't tell the speeds of those involved on this video but the CA lane splitting law says riders cannot go faster than 10 MPH over the speed of cars and NO lane splitting at all if traffic is moving at 30 MPH or faster.

Just from personal experience I'd say hardly anyone follows these limits.
Not saying that's the case here but if you're travelling only 10 MPH faster than the cars you're passing that should allow a good amount of time to hit the brakes or take evasive action.
In stopped traffic 10 MPH is barely enough to keep the bike upright.
 
The car was not only signaling, but also braking and slowing significantly to make the merge. The rider didn't appear to be going overly fast, and should have seen the brake lights of the car, and how much it was slowing, not to mention the turn signal. 100% rider error from my perspective.
 
greenmonster said:
This bolsters the argument other states have against lane splitting. Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's safe. As Blankpage says - it's your own risk.

Can't tell the speeds of those involved on this video but the CA lane splitting law says riders cannot go faster than 10 MPH over the speed of cars and NO lane splitting at all if traffic is moving at 30 MPH or faster.
Click to expand...
Incorrect. So many people get this wrong.

California law does not put a limit on the delta or the speed you can share the lane either. It does reflect the max speed of the road. An officer can pull you for speed if they think it is excessive and dangerous.

Even the CHP tips do not have speeds noted other than faster is more dangerous.
greenmonster said:
Just from personal experience I'd say hardly anyone follows these limits.
Click to expand...
The limits do not exist. I see some riders respecting speeds involved and making good judgements. Hardly ~hardly.
greenmonster said:
Not saying that's the case here but if you're travelling only 10 MPH faster than the cars you're passing that should allow a good amount of time to hit the brakes or take evasive action.
In stopped traffic 10 MPH is barely enough to keep the bike upright.
Click to expand...
Agreed there.

I think our guidelines are better than what the State threw out by a mile.
 
Even if the car's rear signal was not working (though probably was, since the blink speed of the front appeared normal), that rider should have moved into the gap in anticipation of exactly what happened. No reason to hug the center line other than carelessness or hubris.
 
the mini van driver may be partly at fault but it's on the rider to see the hazard and avoid it. The blinker comes on at 2 seconds the rider appears behind the van at 7 seconds.
 
Big red flag to me as a rider when I see that car slowing down like he did to make the merge. The turn signal would have been my first tip-off obviously..

Side note: I hate it when cars slow down like they did to wait for space to merge. It makes everyone else behind them have to slow down, and they had a ton of space in front to go get over. Seems like so many drivers are oblivious to how their own self entitled driving habits affect others around them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top