I was unfortunately involved in an incident yesterday which shook me up more than I care for. Since it happened I have been replaying it in my mind trying to decide what could have been done to prevent it' or if it could have been handled better.
I was travelling down a road, not too wide in a built up area following a bike (a very nice Suzuki Hayabusa I believe) and the bloke had his young lad on the back. Halfway down this street the bike slowed to a stop next to the kerb, this is where I've been playing over whether this was my fault, and I proceeded past coasting in third as there was no indication from the bike (girlfriend agrees, although it's admissible)
As I was by the side of the bike he turned into me - to gain access to his drive. Luckily he stopped before hitting my car and I managed to swerve away but he was unable to keep the bike up and both the bloke and his lad fell into my car. Now from the drivers point of view seeing this happen (in slow motion) it's horrible. I immediately jumped out to see if they were ok, but was greeted by a rather annoyed driver and a screaming wife (which is fair enough)
I was annoyed that the first words out of her mouth were 'no one looks out for bikes' which is daft as he was in front of me and obviously can not miss him. I asked about the lad who was inside by then and obviously in shock about it. The bloke didn't go in to check on him and proceeded to check the damage to his bike, and we started to discuss insurance (although we didn't swap details)
I expressed that I saw no indication from the bike and the wife responded with she saw the indicators and they were still on when he had the bike on the drive, and what made it weird is that the gates to the drive weren't open before he turned in. Eventually he said he didn't notice anyone behind him.
I'd like to know what your thoughts are on this, I've played it over so many times trying to decide on who was responsible etc and where any blame is to be placed. I should have anticipated that he might not have been just stopping at the side of the road, and he should have looked behind him and indicated (something I'm still cloudy about).
A lot of people campaign about keeping an eye out for bikers, this just reinforces it. Even if it was error on their part.
(after speaking to a neighbour they told me about how he tried to boot it between a car overtaking a bus, and ended up crashing)
I was travelling down a road, not too wide in a built up area following a bike (a very nice Suzuki Hayabusa I believe) and the bloke had his young lad on the back. Halfway down this street the bike slowed to a stop next to the kerb, this is where I've been playing over whether this was my fault, and I proceeded past coasting in third as there was no indication from the bike (girlfriend agrees, although it's admissible)
As I was by the side of the bike he turned into me - to gain access to his drive. Luckily he stopped before hitting my car and I managed to swerve away but he was unable to keep the bike up and both the bloke and his lad fell into my car. Now from the drivers point of view seeing this happen (in slow motion) it's horrible. I immediately jumped out to see if they were ok, but was greeted by a rather annoyed driver and a screaming wife (which is fair enough)
I was annoyed that the first words out of her mouth were 'no one looks out for bikes' which is daft as he was in front of me and obviously can not miss him. I asked about the lad who was inside by then and obviously in shock about it. The bloke didn't go in to check on him and proceeded to check the damage to his bike, and we started to discuss insurance (although we didn't swap details)
I expressed that I saw no indication from the bike and the wife responded with she saw the indicators and they were still on when he had the bike on the drive, and what made it weird is that the gates to the drive weren't open before he turned in. Eventually he said he didn't notice anyone behind him.
I'd like to know what your thoughts are on this, I've played it over so many times trying to decide on who was responsible etc and where any blame is to be placed. I should have anticipated that he might not have been just stopping at the side of the road, and he should have looked behind him and indicated (something I'm still cloudy about).
A lot of people campaign about keeping an eye out for bikers, this just reinforces it. Even if it was error on their part.
(after speaking to a neighbour they told me about how he tried to boot it between a car overtaking a bus, and ended up crashing)